


Whistling Past Death

by blackgrl71



Category: Alien vs Predator (2004), Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, BtVS - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-02
Updated: 2011-07-21
Packaged: 2017-10-16 00:50:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 63,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackgrl71/pseuds/blackgrl71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An epic story surrounding Faith and journey towards finding her way back to Willow and the Scoobies. Of course she wouldn’t be a Scooby without a major changes along the way, complete with dimension-jumping, a Lover with issues of her own, a Pack, and her Something else hitching a ride with her Inner-Slayer—namely a Hell-Hound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *I'd like to send a shout-out to BearBlue, who was a life-saver in stimulating my muse when she became 'stubborn' in some places.
> 
> *Disclaimer: As cool as the idea might be; I make NO money and claim no ownership from the various 'verses and characters of BTVS: Joss Whedon, Aliens vs Predator: 20th Century Fox, Davis Entertainment, & Impact Pictures, and Anita Blake: Laurel K. Hamilton.
> 
> *Any and all mistakes are my own. Feedback is TRULY appreciated.

Faith was bored and perhaps lonely. But she’d only admit that under pain of death. She sat hunched in a motel, watching crappy television, while drinking a beer. She thought about heading over to the local bar to check out any possibilities for a good time, but frankly? That had gotten old a long time ago. Twinging a little from her earlier fight with a Rogue Slayer, she wondered what the Scoobies were up to. She’d spoken to Giles earlier, debriefed him on the situation as a cell of Slayers came to pick up the rogue.

“Faith, I do wish you’d return to Cleveland, settle down for a spell. You no longer have to live out of motels; you’ve earned the right for much more.”

Giles was as close to a father-figure as Faith has ever had, and aside from Dawn, Kennedy, and occasionally Willow, consistently kept in touch with her over the years since the implosion of Sunnydale. Kennedy was her buddy, co-trouble-maker, but now she was doing even more of a similar traveling-Slayer gig lately. It turns out Kennedy and Willow have been havin’ problems; which included a couple of ‘indiscretions’ on Kennedy’s part, indiscretions that Willow doesn’t know about yet. After meeting up with Kennedy in Miami one night, the Slayer crying in Faith’s shoulder, it was also clear that things had been steadily cooling off between Kennedy and Willow the last couple of years. Kennedy claimed her infidelity was an attempt to get a reaction from Willow. Faith thought that Kennedy was lucky Willow didn’t turn her into a frog. Apparently while Faith was consoling Kennedy, Willow left for an extended stay at a coven in India.

Things were once again… tense between her and the _Chosen_ Slayer, Buffy. A misunderstanding at their last mission together which resulted in Faith having to pretend to drown Buffy, put Faith on Buffy’s shit-list again. Faith tried numerous times to explain only to watch as it fell on deaf ears. Of course it didn’t help that once Faith found out that Buffy was boneing that sweet, young Slayer named Satsu, coupled with Faith ribbing her conversion to the ‘other side’, only seemed to have enraged Buffy further.

Dawn simply rolled her eyes in exasperation over the whole thing and thought Buffy was once again being an idiot. But she called Faith after every mission to debrief, emailed or texted her every day, and met up with Faith at least once every two weeks to update her on the goings-on of the New Council. This made sense since Dawn was essentially her Watcher. Dawn was like a lil’ bit like that Garcia chick from that show **Criminal Minds** \- always there if Faith needed information or support, and Faith was grateful for that.

Xander was her fellow X-Box virtual teammate. Or at least that’s the way they stay connected. Xander also travels the globe for newly activated Slayers. For a while he dropped out of contact from all of them as he attempted to grieve over Anya and all the trauma from fighting the First, and well, the trauma of being a Scooby too. Andrew was the Operations guy. He was charged with constructing new and wicked weapons while annoying everyone within a one mile radius. When he wasn’t doing that, he managed their Headquarters in Scotland with an irritating, really gay hand. Although he does make the best pumpkin biscuits she’d ever tasted.

Then there was Willow, the main cause of her current discontent. She was one of those women that got better with age. It helped that she was the most powerful Witch in the Western Hemisphere, uber smart, and all-knowing-like, making her… very attractive. It was a realization that sent Faith packing as soon as possible after her last visit to HQ. Her fiery red mane had been stylishly cut short, she no longer wore those hippie-peacenik outfits; instead she could be found in tight, dark designer jeans (compliments of Dawn), or a pair of leather pants for an evening out in Edinburgh. Not to mention, her slighter-build had added womanly curves and muscles that had Faith’s hand itching to trace. Sighing, Faith thought this was a ridiculous obsession. She wasn’t the kind of girl Willow would be interested in; not with her past, of which Willow was very familiar with. Not to mention, Willow was rather… cordial towards Faith, giving Faith a clue that the attraction was all one-sided.

Nevertheless, it’d been a few months since she’d seen anyone from the Scooby-gang, aside from Giles and Dawn, and it was why she was sitting in decent motel, not too far from St. Louis, wishing she didn’t feel things like loneliness. Then that’s when she heard the noise. An atypical noise near her door, breaking up the silence and an occasional car passing by. Tensing, Faith unhurriedly grabbed for her katana, slowly sliding it out of its protective sheath, and then stilling, waiting, trying to gauge what and where the noise was coming from. When she heard it again, except a little louder and more distinct, that’s when she smoothly and silently leapt from the bed into a fighter’s stance, on the balls of her feet, readying the katana, slowly moving towards the door.

However, when the door suddenly busted open what came through even gave Faith pause.

 

***

 

Willow sat reading over the latest texts of a spell she’d been working on, while also deciding what she planned to eat. Looking up, she stared out in thought at the scenery displayed through the huge window in her office, before a frantic knock on her door interrupted her train of thought.

“Come in.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but Andy sent me up here because he thinks something’s wrong. Like ‘ **big** wrong.’”

As warnings go that was as vague as ever. “Want to give me a little more information Cyrus?” Cyrus was one of Andrew’s computer geniuses that helped him maintain the huge cyber detection programs for all the Council staff and their affiliates.

Wringing his hands, the Persian blushed. “Umm, he says for you to check your map.”

Frowning, a sense of dread started to creep in. Willow launched from her seat and hurriedly made her way into another room where she kept her lab, magical contents, and The Map. The Map was something Willow created that helped her keep tabs on everyone. Color-coded lights strewn across a one-dimensional world map. Witches were green, Slayers were orange, the Scoobies were blue, and the Original Slayers were red. Alarmed Willow saw that one of the red lights were flickering in and out, finally growing very dim.

Hurriedly, a little desperately, Willow raced back into her office, calling Buffy on the intercom. “Buff, where are you? I’m assuming since you’re talking to me you’re fine. Which means it’s…” she swallowed a knot forming in her throat. “—it’s Faith.”

Hanging up, she grabbed her cell phone and raced out the door to head towards Andrew’s office, Cyrus following behind her. “Cyrus, go get Buffy.”

Not even listening to his response, feeling the cold sweat beginning to build, she started dialing Faith’s cell only to get her answering service, trying again, hoping against hope that she’d pick up. But The Map was fool-proof, designed by Willow, imbued with her powers, which meant something was wrong with Faith… majorly wrong. Throwing open Andrew’s office doors, seeing the worried, pale visage of Andrew, Willow knew it was bad.

“The tracking device we insert in all our Slayers is… Faith’s no longer working.” Willow watched with growing horror as Andrew’s eyes grew watery and red. “I ran various programs to see if it had malfunctioned or if there was some kind of interference… and nothing. So I thought if The Map was still working…” he trailed off as he saw the look on Willow’s face.

The door busted open again as Buffy came through in her work-out gear. Seeing the look on everyone’s faces she grew increasingly worried. “What?! What’s going on?!”

Willow stared into Buffy’s eyes, the knot of tension and something else continued to grow as she thought about Faith. “It’s Faith. We have to call Giles.”

 

***

 

When the Scoobies arrived on the scene, there were cops everywhere. They were all here: Giles, Buffy, Willow, Dawn (after lots of screaming back and forth between Buffy and Dawn), Kennedy, and Xander. Rona and Vi would be joining them after they finished searching the local hospitals. A guy with greasy, stringy hair, and dubious hygiene stood off to the side smoking a cigarette. Willow approached him, while Buffy and Xander attempted to check out the scene. He gave her a suspicious glance, before returning his attention to all the unwanted law enforcement tramping around.

“Ummm, are you the manager?” Willow thought he had creepy-motel-manager written all over him.

Returning his attention to Willow, leeringly checking her out, he hoped she wasn’t another cop. “Yeah, who wants to know?

Willow didn’t have time to fend off the attentions of a half-bred idiot. Her gaze going cold and authoritative, Willow decided to give him one chance to be cooperative. “Someone who has neither the patience nor the tolerance for uncooperative assholes.”

Staring at the red-head, eyes widening as he saw her eyes bleed jet-black for a moment before returning to their summer-green color.  Gulping, he quickly complied. “Yeah, how can I help you? I ain’t trying to have no more problems.”

“Simple. You’ll tell me what happened.”

“Look, I’ll you what I told them. I came knocking on her door this morning looking for her to either pay up for another day, or get out. That’s when I noticed the lock had been broken, like someone kicked it in. So when I opened the door and saw all the blood everywhere, that’s when I called the cops.” Paling, he wondered if he’d ever be able to sleep with those images in his head.

Willow nodded and began to make her way over towards the scene, her feet growing heavier with each step. White noise filled her head, canceling out the sounds of people milling about. Up ahead she saw Dawn leaning against Xander, crying in front of the open door of what was Faith’s motel room. It made her want to turn around and teleport to anywhere but here. Kennedy stood off to side, her hands shoved into her pockets, silently crying, not looking at anyone, unmoving. She assumed the rest of them were inside. When Xander saw her approaching, his one eye somber and teary, he just nodded. She could smell the blood even before she stood in front of what looked like a massacre.

Blood was everywhere and broken furniture suggested that naturally Faith put up a good fight. Buffy stood unmoving, holding one of Faith’s t-shirts in a clenched fist, while Giles had long ago taken off his glasses to dangle from his fingertips at his side, while his other hand rubbed away the tears gathering in his eyes. But it was the sight of Faith’s katana lying on the ground covered in gore and blood that had Willow turning right around to heave any remaining contents onto the ground in front of the door. A sob escaped lips, her hand quickly coming up to try to stifle any more noises, the other wrapped around her stomach, feeling as if her body was trying to tear itself apart, all the while tears began tracking down her rapidly paling cheeks.

When she felt a hand slide up her arm, she suddenly pushed herself away from the attempt at comfort, turning towards Giles. “No! She’s alive… where’s her body?!  Where’s her body Giles?!!”

Wordlessly working his mouth as he tried to find the words, he tentatively responded. “Willow… you know that—some of the things we encounter…” he didn’t have to finish.

“No! Get everyone out of here.” Her voice raised as the reality threatened to undo her. “I’m going to check for any mystical inconsistencies.”

“Willow, I don--,” Xander attempted to calm down Willow, but was cut off when she went dark-eyed, ratcheting up his fear.

“I said, **no!** ” she closed her eyes, trying to center herself, pushing back the Darkness that threatened to erupt, and when she opened them they were back to their normal green.

Holding up her hand, staving off any further protests, she hoarsely said, “Just… please, let me do this.”

Turning away from them she whispered an incantation, causing everyone but the Scoobies to freeze in their place, before turning around and re-entering the room, ignoring the looks of concern and confusion on her family’s faces. She could understand, they didn’t know.


	2. Chapter 2

****

Almost a year ago, Faith stumbled into the Cleveland Watcher’s facilities to check-in, visit with Giles, and check out the latest weapons Andrew had made for them. She’d just returned from a particularly brutal and difficult case tracking down a power-intoxicated Rogue-Slayer.  She was lounging in one of the huge play rooms, complete with a 74-inch HDTV, a game console featuring an **X-Box** , a **Wii** , and a **Playstation**. A huge over-stuffed sofa and one of those chair-in-a-half, which Faith was currently well-enconsed in, and lots of other necessary fixtures to make winding down for a Slayer a very pleasant experience.  With a beer in hand, Faith was busy scrolling through the channels; Xander was making a run on the kitchens to dig up some snacks for them. More importantly, it allowed her to check-up on a certain Red-Head, without anyone the wiser. For more than a year or so, Faith realized she had a problem.

The _problem_ in the form of one, Willow Rosenberg; it seemed that her body (and grudgingly her mind), seemed fine-tuned to whenever the Witch was near. In addition, this… _condition_ came equipped with an intensity of want that Faith had no frame of reference to deal with. To complicate matters, her best-bud, Kennedy, was Willow’s long-time girlfriend. So Faith did what she could to be in different places to avoid any tempting situations -- outside of a rare visit to Slayer HQ where Willow and Kennedy live. Even worse, was that Faith’s philosophy of Want-Take-Have no longer had its appeal—at least physically. It was if her body was specifically geared towards Willow; she could scent her long before she entered the room, and her body would go into an involuntary response way before her brain caught up with it.

She tried, she really, really, tried to quell her attraction to Red, but it seemed that the more she tried, the worse her… _condition_ became. One week following an attempt to go ‘cold-turkey’ on the Willow situation, her nightly (and the occasional daily) need for ‘relief’ was completely interrupted.  Almost against, a memory of her last fight that included Willow fighting a few feet away was what initially rocked her resolve.

That vision of the Red-Head’s neck and shoulders flushed from exertion, breasts heaving, lean muscles standing out in relief, as she either obliterated the demons and vampires with magic dancing from her fingers, or she sliced them dead with her favorite sword in the other. Along with her beautifully-lush, red hair flying about, dancing on the wind, the ends dragged heavy with sweat. That glistening wetness also gleamed along her delicate neck, and dotted her forehead, all made for an intoxicating and fierce picture. A Hindu priestess called her one of the Goddess Kali’s personal warriors. Others recognized her as one of the most powerful forces in the world. Faith thought she’d become the most alluring woman she’d ever met and that was saying something considering their history.

In the coming weeks, it was this vision and others that often motivated her fingers to inch their way down her wash-board abs, to tangle in her curls. Just as she’d start to refamiliarize herself with her swelling clit and engorged folds, she’d stop, remembering her objective towards resisting Willow. Masturbating while fantasizing about her wouldn’t help. And while it didn’t mean she was a nun, it did make it harder to follow-through with other options like the occasional one-night stand, because… well, because they **weren’t** the Red Witch. But damn it was hard. So hard that she remained out on missions more than ever, much to the concern of Giles and Dawn.

 Ironically, since their new beginnings of the destruction of Sunnydale to the formation of the New Watcher’s Council, Dawn was officially assigned as her Watcher, after she completed her training with Giles (and her Bachelor’s Degree, along with a Master’s and PhD on the way). As a result, Dawn and she became close.  Close enough that Dawn became aware of ‘something’ going on the few times Willow and Faith had been in the same room together.

At first Dawn had made it her mission to tease Faith about her predicament, but once it became clear how… distressed Faith found the situation, the teasing disappeared, and sympathy replaced it. Especially when Dawn realized that the attraction was mutual. She’d stumbled onto Faith and Willow having a… moment.

***

 _Flashback_

 _A citrusy-musky scent wafted in the air signaling the arrival of Willow. Pausing her channel-surfing, Faith looked over towards the door-way, as the Witch walked into the room. The blood began to pound into her head as Red’s scent filled her nostrils, awakening all kinds of nerve-endings that Faith had been desperately trying to manage as this attraction grew. **She’s grown more beautiful,** was the thought that flitted through Faith’s head. **How did this happen** , she thought despairingly?  She knew that Kennedy and Red were having problems; which is why Willow was spending a few days in Cleveland, having recently returned from a mission, rather that returning to HQ. _

_“You mind some company?”  Willow asked as she leaned over to snag a beer from the six-pack on the coffee table, her hair tickled Faith’s nose and lips, tweaking her fraying nerves, and caused her body to twitch. the Slayer worked hard to keep her hands to herself._

 _“Ah, no. Not at all.” Faith steadily watched her. She could feel her pulse thumping like a drum, her stomach knotted up with tension. The enforced drought of sexual fulfillment suddenly making itself known, as Willow settled into the sofa, toeing off her flip-flops to get comfortable.  Faith dug her fingers into the bottle she was holding, ignoring the crack as her Slayer-strength stressed the glass bottle, while her other hand dug furrows into her palm. The pain stifled her urge to tug the Witch onto her lap and do all sorts of nasty-naughty things to her._

 _Her hair a longer than shoulder-length, cut stylishly, flowed effortlessly around her shoulders and graceful neck. Long gone was the awkward, flower-girl, seemingly color-blind, teenager; replaced was a polished, powerful, and confident woman, who’d seen and done things that more than 99.9% of the human population had ever accomplished. Minimal and carefully applied make-up, breasts that had grown full and perky, her body spoke of something beyond fitness, more like a seasoned warrior, completed the picture. She was wearing a pair of Adidas track pants and a t-shirt so long past its ‘expiration date’ that it was almost gauzy-like._

 _Faith couldn’t really narrow down when she realized she was attracted to Willow. Since Kennedy was probably as close to a best –pal as she’d ever had, it goes without saying that this situation was all kinds of fucked. Not to mention, Faith wasn’t quite sure if Willow had ever fully forgiven her for her past transgressions, despite her claims otherwise.  Willow insisted that they (Willow and Faith) were different than the rest; they walked a different path that was filled with redemption, while trying to constantly remain vigilant that they never give into the Darkness._

 _Looking out the side of her eyes, she watched as Willow brought the beer bottle to her pouty, pink, lips and wondered not for the first time, how they’d feel against Faith’s fuller ones. Better yet, she bet they felt even better suckling and licking along her body. Faith began to grow hot, a bead of sweat trickling down her spin. When Willow suddenly turned her head to catch Faith staring, the Slayer felt like she was caught in gleaming, green, headlights. As she stared back, her skin broke out in goosebumps, Faith tried desperately to curb the rare blush beginning to creep up her neck and cheeks._

 _But as if one of Willow’s spells had been cast, Faith couldn’t break away from the slightly hooded, unreadable gaze as it moved closer.  That’s when Faith involuntarily dropped her heated gaze down to Willow’s lips, wondering, hoping to finally feel them against hers. So much so, that her lips were tingling in anticipation. However, Willow came almost an inch from Faith only to divert her attention to the six-pack in front of the Slayer… and grabbed a beer, as Dawn walked into the room, pausing as she noticed the thick tension filling the area._

 _Smirking, Dawn opened her mouth to say something, but paused when she saw Faith looking miserable, minutely shaking her head at her. Grabbing a beer, Dawn plops down in the over-stuffed, comfortable, chair, all the while staring at Faith and Willow, who were looking anywhere but at her and each other._

 _“So whatcha guys watching?” Dawn waves her hand at the air in front of her, “How about everyone tone down the ‘Wall-of-Want’ here; it’s blistering my skin.”_

 _As Willow’s face began turning beet-red, Faith narrowed her eyes and was about to say something when Xander came bounding through the door, oblivious to the tension, complete with the promised-snacks. “Hey Will and Dawn. Glad you could join us.  So Will I'd heard you’d orbed over for a visit. How goes things at HQ?”_

 _What Faith didn’t know was that Willow was struggling just as hard as Faith, perhaps even more so at the risk of her relationship to Kennedy. When she finally allowed herself to acknowledge her attraction to the Dark Slayer, it was if a dam that had been cracking, finally exploded. Every moment they were in each other’s presence, it was all Willow could do to not slavishly stare at the Slayer with all the lust bubbling under her skin. It made her swell with desire, and causing her sleepless nights, with the fear she’d call out Faith’s name in the never-ending erotic dreams, while Kennedy slept nearby. Although that last issue was becoming less, and less, of a concern since Kennedy had been accepting more missions far from Willow._

 _Nevertheless, she began to secretly keep closer tabs on Faith. She constantly checked The Map, always read Faith’s field reports, and discreetly pumped Giles for updates. She stopped pumping Dawn for information because as she just pointed out, Buffy’s sister already knew too much. So she decided to deal with the situation by talking to Faith. But from the moment she entered the room, things became too… much and then they were interrupted by Xander and Dawn. Following that, Willow meant to make it a point of addressing it, except  a couple of Apocalypses here and there diverted her attention for  the next few months, so she just assumed she’d  be able to proactively deal with the Faith-situation when she had the chance._

She should have known better. She lived the life of a Scooby and time should never be taken for granted.


	3. Chapter 3

****

After sending most of the team back to either Scotland or Cleveland, Willow and Buffy elected to stay a little longer. They began checking the local demon underground network for information; beating senseless anything or anyone whom they thought was holding out or was the slightest bit disrespectful. The demons , snitches, the Black magic-users; they first thought they had to be worried about the longest living Slayer of the Two Chosen. But that quickly gave way to a deeper fear of the Red Witch. After two weeks they were no closer to figuring out what happened. All that remained was a grief-stricken Slayer, an angry and intense- in-denial Witch, and Faith’s beloved Harley.

When Willow finally convinced Buffy to head back to Scotland without her, with the condition that Willow could only stay one more week, that’s when the reality began to sit in for the red-head. Trying every magical searching incantation she could find and having to really fight herself from doing the ‘dark stuff,’ Willow, (and Faith’s Harley), despairingly teleported back to a somber HQ. Ignoring everyone she locked herself in her room with strict instructions to not be disturbed for a couple of days.

Meanwhile Dawn was busy researching. Xander, Giles, and Buffy were sitting around in the Great Den, before a roaring fireplace, tearful, drinking themselves silly, and feeling as if they had once again, failed Faith. They should have insisted long ago that Faith would no longer be a lone-wolf; it was too easy get killed during a bout of unluckiness. Not to mention, with all the hundreds of Slayers, hundreds more of Witches and Warlocks, Watchers, and demon-allies, Faith no longer had to go it alone. Then there was the added guilt, that aside from Giles and Dawn, they hadn’t really put forth effort to include Faith in more of the Scoobies lives, they’d continued to treat her like an outsider.

Afterwards the Scoobies spent time trying to deal with the fall-out; Faith had a lot of fans. She saved many of the Slayers’ lives on more than one occasion, plus many of the former Rogue-Slayers looked up to Faith.  With her gone, more than few had to be reined in and counseled, as they acted out in grief and anger. Surprisingly it was Kennedy who dealt with them.  As for Giles, he seemed to of aged over-night; Faith was a bit like his other daughter (aside from Buffy) to him.  The daughter whom he watched grow, evolve, while seeking redemption, saved lives, essentially turn into an amazing, brave, woman. To see all those efforts, that amazing individual, disappear, and not even know _how_ or _why_ , was a terrible experience.

Buffy became edgier, more distant, and angry; she started going back out in the field. Her budding relationship with Satsu became tension-filled, as Buffy avoided dealing with the Faith-issue. Xander went back to his post-Sunnydale days of broodiness and absenteeism. Dawn took on more responsibilities as the older Scoobies grieved and generally began to fall apart. In addition, Kennedy, Rona, Satsu, Vi, and Rowena, one of Willow’s higher-level Witches began to assist more often in the day-to-day operations.

Willow was even more distant than the rest. She walked around with bags under her eyes; yet continued to obsessively train in the gym, while frantically researching possibilities as to what happened to Faith. And in the meantime, she grew skinner and skinner. It became so bad that it finally woke the other Scoobies out of their stupor.  What ensued were shouting matches, food constantly being placed in front of her, and other attempts to bring Willow back to the living, were only met with mild results. It wasn’t until while Willow was bent over another tome, she was startled into alertness as Dawn burst into her room.

“What the hell? You almost gave me a heart attack!” Willow pressed a hand against her chest to stem her frantically beating heart, as she playfully glared at Dawn. She could never stay mad at Dawn for any length of time.

“I think I got something.” Dawn stood there, a fierce look of determination and hope on her face, gave a clue to what she was referring to.

Trying to minimize her expectations, she’d met too many dead ends, she slowly stood up. “What?”

“Well, I’m the Key, ‘Dimension-girl,’ so I… reached out, for lack of a better word.” Seeing the look of confusion on Willow’s face, she hurriedly continued on. “Remember I went away for a couple days last week?” At willow’s nod she barreled on. “I went back to… the site,” the scene of Faith’s… disappearance. “And I extended my dimensional-feelers and I got something. I don’t know why I didn’t think of trying that sooner.”

She paused to take a deep breath. “I think Faith is alive and in another dimension.” 


	4. Chapter 4

****

 

The creature came upon the slightly pale, bloodied body and wondered if she should… touch It. she could hear Its somewhat sluggish heartbeat telling her It was alive. Dark, matted, wet, hair strewn about Its face and shoulders, hiding what It was. However as she got closer she saw among the blood, wounds, and gore, that It was female. Suddenly It shifted, startlingly her, as It let out a pain-filled moan, before stilling once again.

She thought about leaving It since whatever did that to It might still be here and she was just a cub. But she was too curious and she felt… sorry for It. Plus It’s blood smelled good. Getting closer, she lifted her clawed-hand, slowly, gently touching It’s shoulder.  It whimpered, shifting trying to get closer to her, seeking heat, so she began curling up next to It. Why, she wasn’t sure, but the sense of…  protectiveness was growing stronger.  Next to her hand was a weeping wound. She focused on the slash, slowly oozing blood, without thinking she leaned over and began licking at the wound. The first taste exploded on her tongue; coppery, tangy, a hint of spice, and _something_ else; something… ancient. Whatever it was it had her licking even faster, cleaning the wound with her saliva (which for many lycanthropes had healing properties – for her breed, it was even more so).

As she went along cleaning Its wounds, because she was starving and the blood was almost intoxicating, almost sending her a frenzy, she accidentally bit down, suckling as much of the fresher blood as possible. Unbeknownst to her, her salvia began settling into the wound. It seeped into It’s bloodstream, beginning to quickly change Its DNA, before beginning to tickle Its mystical core. The Slayer known as Sineya, took notice. How could it not? A giant Hellhound was approaching. Turning fully towards the intruder, Sineya began growling as her territory was invaded; she determined that she couldn’t allow it to stay here. An answering growl met the Slayer’s as she bared her teeth, fangs gleaming sharp and dangerous, dark-haired dreadlocks almost standing on end, muscles bulging with tension, as she readied to defend her territory.

The Hellhound, surprised to find another predator in its midst began readying itself to fight for her new vessel. Unlike other Lycanthrope strains the Hellhound had to find a worthy vessel, if not it often ended up killing the host as it tried to infuse the host with the Hellhound’s essence. Having encountered another predator, one with a demon essence no less, was unusual. However, the Hellhound doesn’t share. With that it leaked out impressive growls of its own. Its inky-black, fur standing up along its neck, it showed its large, strong, and sharp teeth, the kind used to tear and chomp, huge paws with dagger-like nails clicked along the dirt ground, dug in for purchase before attacking.

Like two ancient gladiators, with the three blood-red suns high in the purplish-sky, wind blowing, kicking up the arid, reddish-brown sand, the two combatants circled around each other, their growls growing louder, glowing, orangey-yellow eyes glaring menacingly into blood-red, orange, and yellow eys; the color of flames eyes glared back, before they launched their attacks. The fight for Faith’s soul, her essence was on. But it was such a unique situation, unprecedented even, that even the PtB were uncertain of the results. 

 

****

 

When the creature finished licking the last of the wounds it could smell, she started to settle into the human’s body. But she knew It wasn’t fully human; but she couldn’t discern what It was. She could ‘smell the strength and power, however weakened emanating from It.  Maybe it was a little human. Nodding her head to herself, she thought that was as close a guess as ever and snuggled into Its body, enjoying the almost searing heat emanating from It.  And female. The breasts were hard to miss. Suddenly she grew somber as she remembered that her Mother had breasts and when she Shifted she had even more teats for her to feed from. That was before the Vampires killed her, before she had to ran fast and far. Maybe It could be her… mommy? Unknowingly, the creature began creating a bond with the Slayer the minute it passed on her lycanthropy, cementing that connection.

Her eyes began to close sleepily; exhaustion making itself felt, her body relaxed into the human’s. Hours or minutes later she was woken by an unusual sound, followed by a slightly familiar-but-not scent. The naked girl quickly leapt to her feet and instinctively dropped into a fighting pose, hoping against hope that whatever it was didn’t try to harm her or the still unconscious human. Glancing quickly at the human, in the early morning sun, she could see that most of the wounds had disappeared or healed. However the human was shivering, panting as if she was running a sprint, yet her skin was ultra-hot to the touch. Her hair fell wet and lank against the human’s head and shoulders, as she whimpered.

The creature let out what she thought was an impressive growl, but because she was still a cub the growl sounded more like a rougher purr without the base. But she stood bravely, protectively in front of her human; she waited for whatever was moving through the trees to make an appearance. When two large, canine-like creatures emerged, thick fur the color of coal, their teeth larger than any canine in existence, heat emanated from them that was just-this-side-of-the-sun hot, one even had small puffs of fire breathing out of its mouth whenever it exhaled. Their eyes looked as if flames were dancing around in them in place of irises. All in all, the creatures were scary, huge, and intimidating.

But the cub stood its ground even as it wanted to supplicate to these familiar, yet unknown figures coming through the treeline. The cub let out another warning growl, as the huge creatures came galloping towards her only to skid to a halt in front the cub. Their lips pulled down from a snarl, covering their dangerous teeth, hair beginning to lay flat, while their growls lessened to silence. Stilling, an orangey glow began to emanate from them and the cub watched wide-eye as the fur seemed to quickly shift back, like water washing away from the shore, leaving behind nut-brown skin of one and a mocha-colored skin of the other. Standing upright from all-fours, she watched in further amazement as their length began to shorten; the awkward bend of being naturally on all-fours to a more natural humanoid stance as the fur continued to bleed away, until it dusted up their back to lustrous, curly, human-hair that fell mid-way down their backs.

Finally, what stood before the cub was no longer huge, canine-like hounds, but two naked humans; one female, one male. The male stood a little taller than the female, but not by much, and they had a slightly different scent underneath, one identifying them as Pack. Both stood staring in amazement at the cub who stood protectively over the injured, naked, human. What was even more amazing was that the cub was a rare Hellhound. Glancing at each other for a moment before quickly returning their attention to the unusual site, the woman hesitantly approached a little closer, scenting the air around them, especially the human. She wondered if that was the cub’s mom, its scent was all over the adult female. Not to mention the adorable way it stood protectively over the human.

“Hello, little one. We mean you no harm.” Seeing the dried blood along the woman’s body and a little on the cub, whom had partially Shifted her hands into paws, and she could see little cubby canines.  “Are you hurt?”

When the cub could see that the Shifted female and male meant them no harm, she began to warily relax. “Who are you?”

The female stooped down so as to appear as unintimidating as possible. “Where are your people? Your Pack? Is this your Mom?” Although there was something off about the scent and feel of the unconscious female.

The cub tried to be brave, to not show weakness, but when the female asked about her Pack it brought fresh memories of her recently deceased Mother. She tried to stem the sudden need to cry, knowing that strong emotions released some of her Lycanthrope powers—like the fire. When the female saw the sorrow bleeding through the cub’s eyes she guessed that something bad led the two here.

Sniffling, trying to be cool, the cub answered. “N—no. I found her here.” Rubbing away her tears she realized that maybe she said too much. “But she’s my Pack!” But then her bottom lip quivered as the need to cry grew stronger. “And sh-sh-she’s hurt! She won’t wake up!”

The female looked back at her male companion, seeing the sympathy and concern mirroring in his eyes. “Can I take a look at her to see if we can help? And my mate, Masud will try to get you something to eat. Is that ok?”

At her hesitant nod, the woman moved closer to the unconscious female, the cub watching her every move like the self-appointed watch-dog she was. She laid her hands an inch from the still form, feeling the unnatural heat emanating from the skin. Almost as if she was an injured Lycanthrope, but she didn’t ‘smell’ like a Lycanthrope, not fully, just… a little. As if… as if she were newly infected! Running a hand through her hair at this possible development she returned her attention the cub.

Moving slowly, not wanting to spook the cub, she wanted her to trust her, she slowly reached out tuck a dark curl behind the cub’s pointy little ears.

“It’s ok. We’ll help you. In fact, it might be best to take you back to our home.” Seeing the suspicion rise in the cub’s eyes, she hurried to reassure her. “It’s warm, it has food, and it’s safe. We won’t let anything happen to either of you. But we can’t remain out here, it’s too dangerous.”

The cub turned her attention to what she deemed her new Pack-mate, as if trying to glean what she should do. The touch from the adult female Lycanthrope felt…. safe, and she could ‘smell’ the sincerity of her concern, just like she could ‘smell’ if she was lying. Plus the cub was tired, hungry, and the lure of safety was very strong. And maybe they can help her new Pack-mate.  The cub returned her attention to the two adults.

“Ok. But only if you promise to help her.” And with that she reached up to grab the female’s outstretched hand, while Masud stooped down to gently pick up the unconscious woman.

She looked up at the female again. “My name is Miko. What’s yours?”

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t even introduce myself. Pleased to meet you Miko.  As you know that’s Masud and I’m Isis.” Seeing another question brewing in those reddish-golden eyes she waited.

“You’re like me, aren’t you? Am I going to look like you when I finally Shift all the way?”

Isis felt a sudden warmth glowing inside her chest, tenderness followed soon after, before she responded. “Was your Mother a Hellhound, Miko?

Stumbling a little over the mention of her Mother, Miko looked down at the ground for a moment, trying to hide the re-emergence of tears and sorrow. “Yes.” She mumbled.

Isis suddenly stopped their forward motion, stooping down to look into Miko’s eyes. “Then you know how very special you are. There are so few of us left and even fewer cubs. But your birth means hope and we will do everything in our power to make sure to keep you safe. Your Pack now includes us, if you’ll have us.”

A few moments passed as Miko stared into her eyes, gauging how much to believe Isis, then looking over at Masud who was warmly watching them before nodding his approval. “Does it include my friend? I can’t leave her… I don’t know why, but it’s important.”

Isis shared a look with Masud before she nodded her head. “I promise we’ll keep you safe, that we’re all Pack now, that includes the human.” She frowned. “Although I don’t think she’s all human is she?”

Scuffing her foot along the ground, her dark curls falling into her face, Miko pursed her lips as she tried to figure out a way to respond. “I-I… don’t know. I just know that she needs me.”

Silence met that answer. Isis was a big believer in mysticism and destiny, for a Hellhound this was almost intrinsic. As a Lycanthrope, instincts were a fine-tuned, sixth-sense, one that they had to rely on for the basic necessities and for survival. So if Miko believed this human was important to her, along with the fact that Isis couldn’t pin down… _what_ she was, that she was more than human, meant that they had to look out for the human. It felt… right, as right as stumbling across this miraculous Hellhound cub. They’re very few known cases of Hellhound transference, they were born. Or they had been for the last two-hundred years. The last documented Hellhound was almost 100 years ago. It was a growing belief that the quickly diminishing Hellhound-Weres population was either becoming sterile or perhaps some kind of magic was blocking their ability to procreate.

Of course, being hunted to the edge of extinction because of their supposedly miraculous properties, fear from the Vampire Council, and various Were coalitions’ misguided, misinformed, stagnant beliefs, made them a target as well. Perhaps this human had an important part to play in their future, coming across a rare Hellhound cub, clearly suggested that to be the case. 


	5. Chapter 5

****

Miko laid content, lying near the warm fire, belly full from the fresh rabbits that’d been gathered by Isis, as Masud tended to the human. Speaking of the human, Masud and Isis determined that the human, recovering from severe injuries that should have killed her might now be going through a Change of some kind, perhaps Lycanthropy. The woman was running hot, way past human- fever-hot, but when they tried to cool her off, she seemed to get worse, and that is a classic symptom of Lycanthropy. So Miko often curled up next to her, then Isis and Masud also curled around the human, and that seemed to help. But it was now a little more than a week later and she still hadn’t regained consciousness. Isis said that whatever she was going through appeared to be an epic battle that will either end up with her recovering, but very different, or her dying.

 

Naturally, as content as Miko was, she still very concerned for the unconscious female.  But Isis also explained that Miko might be psychically connected to the unconscious woman, it was why she still smelled of Miko, even after they’d washed her. Luckily their shelter seemed pretty safe and secure. Located up the side of a large hill, in a cave, they’d made themselves at home with Masud and Isis. Miko really hoped that the human would wake up to enjoy it with them and to meet her now slightly bigger Pack.

**

Meanwhile a battle was being waged. Both combatants glared warily at the other; breathing heavily, yet refusing to give into the exhaustion or ground, as mystical wounds dotted their skin. Finally The First Slayer lifted its hand to halt the next round of attacks and asked a question.

 **  
_Mayhap we ask Slayer what she want?_   
**

The Great Hellhound paused, staring at Sineya, before It nodded in agreement. A pale, dark-haired woman appeared, standing shivering in the unnatural, mystical, environment. Looking around in confusion, wondering if this was another Slayer dream, she stood glaring at the two Beings before her. “You,” pointing at The First Slayer, “I know. But you,” pointing at the Great Hellhound, “I don’t.”  Widening her stance in case she had to fight, with the deepest hope that she wouldn’t have to, she waited to be clued in on what she was doing here or even where the hell she was.

 ** _You must choose_**.

Faith waited for more information and when she realized none was forthcoming she gave into her frustration. “Vague much? What the hell does that mean?! Choose who’d win in a celebrity death match? The Yankees or the Red Sox?  What?!” Faith sincerely wished she could go at least a week without some kind of mysterious, vague, or supernatural interference.

 ** _Choose the Slayer or choose the Hound._** This came from the surprisingly rich, melodious, and accented, voice from the Great Hellhound.

However, it finally gave Faith the ‘clue’ she needed to figure out what they wanted. She almost immediately said, of course the Slayer, but then she looked at the great beast, standing over the feral Slayer. They stood opposite of each other, wounds fresh from fighting, where apparently neither gave quarter. Faith walked closer towards the Hound. It sat watching her calmly on its hind quarters. For some reason Faith felt no fear from it. When she was finally within touching-distance she stopped. “Why should I choose you?”

 ** _Many have perished. Nearly ran into extinction. You bring new hope to us. You will be my vessel. You will be more._** Then it lifted a paw and touched a finger to Faith’s forehead. Suddenly she was transported somewhere else with a bird’s eye view. She stared down an unfamiliar little girl curled around her body, as if Faith was her personal giant teddy-bear.  Next, walked two half-human-half-animals, similar to the one standing in front of her, with a dead deer and other assorted items from the land around their feet. However, Faith returned her attention to the little girl. She could almost be a relative of Faith’s except she was darker. Suddenly Faith understood. These creatures were waiting for her.

A flash of white and Faith was back, standing in front of the Hound and Sineya. Nodding her head at the Great Hellhound, she then walked over towards the First Slayer. She reached out, briefly touching her cheek. “We’ve been through a lot together. You’ve been there when no one else has been; even during my fucked-up phase. I can’t forget that.” Her eyes turned serious, stealing another look at the Hound. “But I think… I think I’m needed here.” With growing certainty and determination she offered another choice. “I think we’re both needed here.”

 ** _Very rare; Slayer share,_** chimed in the First Slayer.

 **  
_Even rarer the Hound shares with another. But you perhaps…  you are different. And mayhap you be the Hound’s savior._   
**

Faith watched as they closed their eyes, perhaps communicating with each other, with their gods, maybe the Ptb. But as the minutes ticked away she became more certain that this was what she was supposed to do. That this felt _right._ She wondered again where she was and how she got here. The last thing she remembered was this demon she thought she killed in Chicago, standing with a bunch of his buddies, complete with lots of sharp instruments, and a mysterious chalice.She remembered thinking that she thought it’d sucked to die in some seedy motel, in a small town, outside of St. Louis, not even surrounded by friends. Not even getting to see Dawn, Kennedy, or… Willow again before she died. She remembered that as she laid on the floor coughing up blood, the demon suddenly started chanting. The lead demon reached down with the chalice to allow some of her blood to spill in, there was a green flash, she lost consciousness, and now she was here.

 ** _We have decided. We merge. If you live, you will be both. You will be Champion and Protector._** This came from the First Slayer.

 ** _Do you accept,_** asked the Great Hellhound?

Standing tall and straight, squaring her shoulders, steadying herself for the plunge she was about to take she answered the only answer that mattered. “Yes.”

Nodding the First Slayer touched two fingers to her brow, while the Great Hellhound stepped close and bit down into her shoulder, making her start to scream only to quickly lose consciousness. The trial had begun. 


	6. Chapter 6

The newly formed Pack watched in growing alarm as the fever continued to rise, her body turned an almost severe sunburn-red color, glistening as she sweated, heaved, and undulated. Miko had taken on the responsibility during the calmer moments to gently open the cracked lip, slowly feed her water, and any other medicines that Masud foraged from the forest. As hot as they ran, the human was almost too hot for them. But they knew if they didn’t curl their bodies around the unconscious female she wouldn’t heal or have a chance at survival. Not to mention they felt… something powerful enter the woman, something familiar, but much stronger. They hoped she survived, she felt… important.

 

Two weeks later, Miko and Isis had just returned from hunting, Isis had begun to teach the cub how to use her abilities. Masud stayed behind to take part of his favorite pastime of woodcarving, while watching, what he now believed might be another Were -Hellhound. But he kept his suspicions to himself in case she didn’t survive. He could hear his mate and the cub approach. He hoped Miko liked the little toy he carved for her. It was a round, wooden, puzzle-piece.  Numbering more than twenty pieces, the pieces detached themselves, and she had to figure out where each piece goes. Smoothing an edge he suddenly heard a groan and shifting from their formerly unconscious patient. She’d been quiet all morning, the first time she’d been still and silent. At first they thought she had passed on, but they could still hear the ‘thud’ of her heart and the blood rushing through her veins.

He tensed as he heard another groan, followed by a cough. That’s when he felt It; the Power. It was unlike any power he’d ever felt before. Leaders of various Lycanthrope clans emanated an open-oven-like power indicating their Alpha status; some of that Power was colored needle-like or with an icy-hot sensation that blanketed the skin of those around them. This one felt big; like a swirling tornado over a lava lake or like the shimmering air of heat from a mirage you’d see and feel in a dessert. The signature was definitely Were-Hound, but a very powerful one. But it was also something else; _something_ he couldn’t identify. Another longer, painful, moan echoed in the cave.

He slowly stood up and approached the new –Were-Hound. Amazed, he watched as the woman shifted, her eyelids moving as she tried to open them. She lifted a trembling hand to her brow, gently rubbing the skin there. He stilled as he watched as her eyes slowly began to blink open, quickly shutting them from the light. However, they quickly opened again as her eyesight quickly adjusted. She wetted her chapped lips, trying to gather any moisture for her mouth and throat, the move sent Masud scrambling for the water bottle they kept on hand for her.

Faith was finally able to painfully focus on her environment, narrowing down on the slightly familiar-scented, male offering her water. His thick, curly hair was tied back, his ebony-colored skin gleamed  from the light streaming in from the outside, complete with a sleek, muscular swimmer’s build, made for an attractive and elegant figure. The familiarity with which he maneuvered around the space suggested that he’d been here as long as Faith.  But it was the unusually strong **_bzzz_** that emanated from him that alerted her to something even more familiar. Similar to the **_bzzz_** she felt when Buffy was near, but much stronger.

A sound from the entrance of the cave indicated the arrival of Isis and Miko. When Miko saw that Faith was awake, she excitedly gasped, and then effortlessly launched herself across the room to Faith’s side.

“You’re awake! I knew you’d make it! Isis helped me give offerings to our gods so that you can recover.”  Leaning over, she wrapped her thin arms around a surprised Faith’s torso, squeezing out another groan of pain. But then she quickly sat back, frowning, tilting her head in confusion at the Power and scent coming off of Faith. “You smell like Pack, but… different. Wh—,” she looked over at Masud and Isis.

Not liking the vulnerable position of talking on her back, Faith attempted to sit up, but she was so weak, that she could only prop herself on her elbows. “The name’s Faith. And you are?” She frowned as a name rang around in her head; she also recognized a stronger invisible cord-like bond to this kid. “And you Lil’ Sprite are Miko.” After all Nibblet was one of Dawn’s nickname .

The other adult female, with beautiful almond-colored skin, hair cropped close to her head, and golden eyes, stood with a hand covering her mouth in amazement. Isis walked closer before stooping down, laying a gentle hand on Faith’s stomach. “We were very worried about you. There are no words to tell you how happy we are that you’ve made it. My nam--,” covering her hand, Faith interrupted her.

“… is Isis and the stud-muffin over there is Masud.” Faith then smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of a nickname for both of you soon ‘nough.”

Raising the water bottle to her lips, she began cataloguing her body. While she was thin from the sickness of the Change, she felt… renewed. She frowned when she came to the area of the scar that Buffy gave her; it wasn’t there. Lifting her head even more, her eyes trying to confirm what the smooth skin her hand was stroking was suggesting; she shook her head in amazement. That’s when the emptiness inside her stomach made itself known, the resonance of it felt through her palm. Like some kind of wild beast she was suddenly starving; she needed to eat something now and a lot of it.

Masud hurriedly retrieved today’s kill; a deer, and brought it over to their newly-awakened Pack member. He quickly began skinning the fur from it. But Faith’s hunger grew as she watched Masud skin the deer, until it became painful,  her salivary glands began to work over-time, her gums suddenly becoming tender and sensitive, as she felt her teeth lengthening,. She also registered an urgent need to pee.

“Enough. Don’t worry about the rest, just bring it here Masud.” Faith commanded, her voice intense and growly as the hunger grew.  Masud immediately stopped, the authority in her voice unmistakable, that he instinctually and without thinking followed her command.

When Faith quickly snatched the deer carcass away, staring at a bloody section, they watched as her incisors grew to a length much greater than theirs, her eyes turned a glowing, swirling swash of colors: red, orange, and yellow. Her nailbeds turned black and lengthened to almost the size of a bear. They watched as her head quickly snapped down, tearing into the meat, uncaring as the blood dripped down her chin as she gorged herself on the meat. Isis turned to Masud. “She’ll need more. Take Miko with you.”

Sharing another look with Masud, feeling the Power humming off Faith, they realized that their new Packmate is something special. Looking back, Isis watched as Faith tore into the deer, listening to her feral, growly, snarling, sounds radiate around the interior of the cave. Isis thought she was… magnificent and she couldn’t wait to see her fully Shifted. 


	7. Chapter 7

A week later, Faith was mostly recovered from her long bout with the Change. Her new Powers had given her an extra boost in healing abilities.  She was now learning how to hunt with her Pack and because Miko was closer to her than the others, they spent lots of time exploring their surroundings. Faith began teaching her fighting techniques, while she worked  off the rust of her own, plus it gave her a chance to see what this new body could do. She could feel the Power bubbling under the surface, like lava bubbling in a volcano about to erupt. So when the Pack was out bathing, hunting, or playing, Faith would often go off alone to begin accessing her new body.

First, she performed the Tai Chi that Angel taught her long ago to help not only shake away the cobwebs, but also to begin balancing her new body with her new essence. It was with some surprise when her consciousness registered the fact that her First Slayer had partnered with a Hellhound, actually the Great Hellhound; a guardian of sorts for the Hellhound species.

Destiny was a funny thing. Faith had resigned herself to being the outcast, the Dark Slayer, not truly belonging to anything, certainly not to anyone; the Darkness to Buffy’s Light, or so she thought. Now she’d been yanked into another universe, sent to essentially protect a species of fierce, yet loyal species that have almost been eradicated. A species that had long lost their way as they were almost hunted to extinction, a species who had begun to lose ‘faith’ in their gods and spiritual protectors. Apparently the gods had been listening and when the opportunity presented itself, they sent a little help in the way of Faith Lehane. Shaking her head at the ramifications and her new reality, she finished up the last of her movements, stopped to take a swig of water, and then moved into her katas.

Letting her muscles wake, roll, and move, she enjoyed her new body. The aches and pains, the old injuries, had been healed. Muscles she didn’t even know existed made her realize that her strength, agility, and quickness, had been increased… a lot. In fact, if she wasn‘t mistaken she might have grown a couple of inches, her shoulders were broader and her legs seemed thicker in order to fit her new muscles. To the naked human eye she looked like a mini-dust storm, her hair hanging long and wild as it flew about her head and shoulders, to her Packmates who came to watch she looked like legend. Miko practically vibrated in excitement as she watched Faith.

Masud nodded his head as if coming to some major decision. “We must seek help. We can only teach her so much.”

Isis knew **_what_** or **_who_** he was talking about. This person may already know since every Were-Hound was bound to some mystical tree that this Shamaness lovingly attended to. Sighing she knew she had to risk exposure to go into civilization to make a phone call. But then her face turned thoughtful, _maybe not. Maybe she can send her a mystical message?_

Faith finally slowed to a stop. She stood breathing heavily; sweat coating her tanned, mostly naked skin, her muscles stood out in stark relief, her hands finally rested to her sides, still slightly clenched. Almost without her noticing, she had partially Shifted; her hands were almost paw-like, her nails black, long and sharp, with a dusting of dark fur along the backs of her knuckles.  Dark fur also lightly dusted along her shoulders and back, her face had taken on a feral look, complete with sharp teeth, and even sharper canines. Her eyes were more almond-shaped, now glowing with the colors of a flame. Her head hung down for a few moments before tilting back and letting out a large roar. Then her fingers spread wide and like a sound of a burner on a stove being activated, a ‘whoosh’, followed by flames encased her hands.

With a look of wonderment, Faith slowly brought her hands up. The flames felt benign; _the fire felt similar to the sensation of carbon and bubbles exploding on her tongue,_ _or at least that’s the closest thing she could think of_ , thought Faith. Well, whatever it was, it was pretty cool gift. She wondered if she could shoot flames from her hands or if they just hung around like holiday decoration? Moving on, she began to concentrate on various parts of her body, the parts that gave off a weird vibe since her body had been upgraded. Parts like her throat and chest which were now starting to feel slightly itchy since her hands flamed-up. So focusing on those areas, suddenly she _saw_ fire licking down a metaphysical corridor, her throat and chest grew itchier, followed by that strong spicy-bubbly feeling, then her mouth open wide as flames began shooting out like some kind of dragon, startling her.

She let out a yelp, coughed up a little white smoke, and then laughed before trying to breathe fire again; if only to see how far the trajectory was. “Whoa! Now that’s fuckin’ cool!” As she exclaimed her amazement another poof of smoke followed.

Miko quickly moved closer. “Wow, I can’t do that! Neither can Isis or Masud. They can only do the flamey-thing with their eyes.”  She excitedly exclaimed, bouncing happily in place.

Dimming down the flames on her hand, Faith reached over to affectionately ruffle Miko’s hair. The sensation of tenderness and… love continued to grow in chest for the kid, who more than likely helped saved her life. “Thanks kid.”

MIko frowned, crossing her arms, practically stomping her foot, and attempted to put on her most adult look. “I’m not a kid. I’m almost old enough to go hunting on my own.”

Faith chuckled, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. “You’re right. But until you grow a few inches you’re still my kid. Got it?”

Sighing, scuffing her foot, Miko nodded. “Ok. But can you teach me some of those moves?”

Masud and Isis joined them. “Have you tried to fully Shift?”

“Nah, I wanted to make sure all ‘the parts’ were calibrated before I tried. Everything is freakin’ new and powerful.” This brought Faith to another growing concern, “Ah, have you thought about an actual… habitat? You know the kind where you can grab a beer and call your local delivery pizza place?”

Suddenly she felt the air increased with tension and fear coming from her Packmates.  Faith’s head swiveled back and forth between Isis and Masud, Faith grew more concerned. “What’s wrong? We don’t have money or somethin’?” Feeling the tension increase even more through the Pack-bond, she asked another question. “Or is someone after you?” She growled this last part as a sense of fierce protectiveness filled her.

Isis sighed before she answered. “There’s always someone or something after us. You know that there’s so few of us. It is because the minute the Preternatural community becomes aware of our existence they usually send hunters to kill us.” She continued on as Faith’s growls grew more menacing at the information.

 “It’s why we’ve been living out here and you know how we stumbled upon Miko. The minute we enter civilization is the minute our lives will be put in danger.”

But then they watched in awe as Faith began Shifting, her emotions leaking out, the rage quickening her senses at the thought of anyone hurting the members of her Pack. She needed an outlet. She began to grow in size, black fur spilled like water all over her body, her teeth once again became sharp, long, and huge, eyes glowed like flames in a jack-o-lantern, and flames erupted on her hands, as she continued to grow, until what stood before them was a huge, Were-Hound. Flames licked along its great head and hands (now paws), tail, and no doubt erupts when she breathes hard. She stood at least 10ft, boulder-slab-like muscles along her shoulders, arms, back, and legs. That’s when they noticed the silence. Not a single sound could be heard from the forest, as if all the animals had been warned: **_here stands the ultimate predator, run, if you can_**.

Isis and Masud fell to their knees, and then laid their upper-bodies flat on the ground in supplication because what stood before them was a Great Hound Protector. Miko just stood wide-eyed, quivering in both awe, and a little fear. The fear was dispelled when Faith, feeling it through their Bond, sent reassurances that Miko was Pack, she was, family, she was… her Blood-Sister.

“Really? You’ll never leave me?” She whispered with a child-like innocence.

Faith lifted her huge paw and gently patted her on the shoulder, making her slightly stumble anyway. With a growly, barely recognizable voice, she confirmed. “Always and never; not as long as I breathe.”

Faith concentrated so that she grew smaller, but kept her dagger-like nails, while she bled back some of her fur, the flames dying down along her body, her snout receded until it formed her nose and mouth, her ears remained pointy but smaller, onyx-colored skin changed to a dark-gray color, her hair returning to its mid-back length, until she stood before them half-female, half Hellhound.

“Ok, here’s the deal; I’m gonna go into the nearest town, scope the place a bit, perhaps make plans to go to the closest city.” But what she planned to do was hurt, possibly kill any Alphas who dared send hunters after her Pack while sending a message: the Were-Hounds had a Protector now, fuck with them, and Faith will tear your spine out and hang you with it.  

She raised a hand to stem off any protests. “I need ya to stay here. It’ll be safer for now. Understand?” Normally, Faith would make it a request, but her role in this life was different, and the Great Hellhound inside her kept telling her to assert her dominance.

Faith thought that just by being a near 10ft-killing-machiene would do the trick but apparently there are certain… _rules_ in this world. She gave a mental shrug before she thought about how lovely it’d be to drink a ‘cold one’ or eat people-food, like pizza or doughnuts. She almost moaned at the thought of a warm shower and a bed. Plus this was no place to watch over Miko; she’d end up being a Una-bomber or something equally ridiculous. _Well that seals it; she’ll be headin’ into town tonight,_ she thought.

First there was one problem, a loin cloth or general nudity probably won’t cut it. “Ah, we got any clothes around here?” 


	8. Chapter 8

Faith stood at the edge of the parking lot of the gas-station, wearing slightly too-big jeans, sandals, and a hoodie, from Isis. At present, she was allowing her upgraded senses get used to the man-made sounds and smells permeating the air. It was almost overwhelming at first, until she used some of the meditation tools that Angel taught her, allowing her to level out to some kind of calmness. Faith proceeded to scope out the immediate vicinity; she closed her eyes. She stretched her senses for any Lycans and Vampires, or anything supernatural, while ignoring the inbred-redneck leering at her from the passenger seat of a stereotypical pick-up truck.

“Well, lookie here! Hey thar sweetness. Why you standin’ out here by your lonesome. Need a ride?”

Faith rolled her eyes, sighing in irritation, before she answered. “I really can’t imagine a world where ANY woman would find that a tantalizin’ offer. So instead of continuing to gross me out, why don’t you wait for your ‘girlfriend’ so that you can go fuck off together.”

Noticing a bar/pub in the distance, plus a Uniform clothing store a little ways away, Faith started walking in that direction, leaving behind an indignant, slightly slow, and stuttering male. For a moment the idiot thought to get out of his truck and defend his masculinity. But as if the woman was reading his mind, Faith slowly glanced in his direction, allowing her eyes to unnaturally glow; the feeling of something threatening stirring even his somewhat dim level of common sense and halted what little courage he had. Satisfied that the moron got the picture, Faith continued on.

Earlier before she left her Pack, there was some discussion about how to pay for things, what things were needed, and Isis gave Faith a number to call with a set of numbers to go along with it. Apparently this would automatically activate a bank account, left in the couple’s name. Following that, was a brief run-down on the _life of a Were-Hound_ , or as Giles might say, “Their unique organizational structure.” It turns out that that Miko was a rare cub making her very special. Were-Hound cubs were reported to be highly prized for various hunters, for various reasons: from “healing properties” to “fertility enhancement” or to supposedly provide good-luck, for certain Lycanthropy groups. As a result while adult Were-Hound numbers have been greatly diminished, scattered throughout the globe, the birth of a cub became such a rare phenomenon that it was thought they’d been hunted into near extinction.  

It was also true that those that are born from a Were-Hound didn’t necessary have the lycanthropy. This became even truer as the threat to their species as a whole, became dire, perhaps as some sort of evolutionary defense mechanism, causing the gene to go into dormancy. When Faith’s eyes began to slightly glaze over at this explanation, Masud and Isis began to quickly moved onto summarizing the Were-Hound hierarchy.

Aside from the Were-Hound, those that were born without full Were-Hound lycanthropy abilities as a result of a dormant gene were called **Caretakers** or **Carriers**. They hid in plain-sight in order to maintain and protect the interests of the Were-Hound species, yet they took care of all the necessary needs of Were-Hounds; banking and finance, real estate transactions (apparently the species owned properties all over the world), addressed any legal issues, as well as, operated Lycanthropy medical facilities and services. Personnel managed by the Caretakers were set up throughout various regions around the world to maintain safehouses, plus archive any and all information related to their species. All this was very important in a world where some countries prohibited those with a lycanthropy strain from residing in the country, while other countries such as the U.S., simply discriminated against them.

There was also a great library called **The Scrolls** , hidden away in Alexandria, Egypt. It was at this point that Isis had excitedly began to launch into a discussion about this library and the more famous **Ancient Royal Library of Alexandria** that had  that had burned down way back when, but she stopped when Faith quickly and firmly suggested Isis to stay on topic. With an eye-roll and a “very well,” Isis continued with a rundown into the specifics about their species. Each member of the Hellhound species; Were-hounds and Carriers were given an identification number, a bank account, and a way to get in touch if services or help were needed. Their spiritual leader was a great Shamaness named **_Safiya_** , who functions as their High Priestess. She was ancient --no one knew her exact age, she resided in a remote location in Ethiopia, and she didn’t look a day over 35.

This complex global structure was secretly called **The Circle** ; it was believed that no matter where a Were-Hound or Caretaker was they would remain connected. Reminiscent and a bit of play on the Christian belief of Circles of Hell and they were Hellhounds. But the Hounds had been around a lot longer than Christianity; it was believed that they were guides to the spiritual planes, Heaven, Hell, or Underworld. Others said they were the guides for the Great Hunt or **_were_** the Great Hunt. The legend of their species was so old no one really knows. However, despite all the rhetoric they weren’t inherently evil. Like all other sentient creatures they had free-will; some were bad, others were decent, but most were like everyone else; struggling to be good… most of the time.

Isis and Masud had already contacted the Shamaness about Faith and Safiya wanted to meet her. When Faith just shrugged over that piece of news, they returned to their plans of trying to re-enter society. It turned out that Miko had some American money on her, given to her by her dying mother who hoped she’d stumble upon someone, helping her to make contact with a Caretaker.  Instead she stumbled upon Faith and created a new Bond, followed by finding her new Pack. So it was decided that Faith would use this money to buy their initial supplies: clothing, food, and shelter. She figured a motel would be fine. Then they could call a Caretaker to set up an ID for Faith, plus release funds from her Pack’s accounts, as well as, check for any additional information and safeguards for Miko.

Isis planned to also request for some books to find any information regarding the Hellhound Faith merged with. There were so many stories and legends so old that most of them only knew bits and pieces, and not very accurate ones at that. In the meantime, Masud planned to contact Safiya to set up a place and time to meet the new members of his Pack, especially Faith. All of this ran through Faith’s mind as she pushed open the door to the uniform clothing store.

And that was when she met her first Were who wasn’t one of her Hounds. Faith scented the air, pretending to not notice the Were looking at her, as she began sifting through the clothing racks. Faith realized she needed a basket, plus it’d give her an opportunity to send **_that message_** , as she strolled over towards the counter. Slowly she ran her eyes up and down the woman’s body, enjoying the way she bristled in response. Faith let a little of her Power leak out, her Beast and the Slayer started to stand at attention. She watched as the woman’s eyes widened.

“I need to buy more n’ a few things. Do you have a basket around here, or should I just keep bringing stuff up to the counter?” Faith funneled a little of her Power to ride her whiskey-soaked voice, turning it huskier and growly, and once again watched as the woman shivered in response.

The woman delicately sniffed the air around Faith, probably trying to figure out what she was. “We don’t have baskets, so it’s fine if you bring the stuff up here.”

Faith tilted her head as if examining her; she inhaled taking in more of the woman’s scent… it smelled like a… dog… no… a wolf!  But she wasn’t a Dominant because she stopped looking up into Faith’s eyes the moment Faith let lose her Power. “Your Pack nearby?”

The woman quickly glanced into Faith’s face before submissively looking down again before asking. “Why?”

“Listen Wolfie, I’m getting hungry and I need to find a place for my Pack to bed down, but if I have to ‘negotiate’ their safety then you need to let your Alpha know.” Without waiting for an answer, Faith turned around to continue her shopping. A town this small, by the time she started heading towards the bar, she figured other Werewolves would arrive. Relaxed, whistling, yet alert, she looked forward to taking her new Powers for a ride.

By the time Faith was about twenty feet from the pub, carrying two large shopping bags clenched in one hand, enjoying her new steel-toe boots, complete with thick, comfy, socks, when an old SUV and a pick-up truck pulled up into the parking lot. Even before they got out of the truck, Faith could feel their Power, as if there was an open oven nearby. Seeing a tall, bulky, white-haired man, with a noticeable scar on his face, plus two three other men, and two women, Faith knew that almost an entire Pack had come to greet her.

Faith dropped her purchases before slowly walking towards the approaching group led by the white-haired male, until she came to within a few (fighting) feet of them.  One male was tall, with all big-muscles, was busy trying to intimidate Faith; she simply rolled her eyes. Another male was short and stocky; he stood next to his Alpha clenching his fists. The last male was broad-shouldered, medium size man, with the slightest build—but Faith guessed he was probably one of their best fighters. One woman stood back, watching the proceedings with keen interest. Faith will have to keep her in her sights if or when things go ‘south.’ The other woman sidled up next to the white-haired male, the expression on her face was the most unfriendly, if not, downright hostile. The mate, Faith guessed. She gave an internal sigh, _straight women and their ridiculous jealousies._

 _Of course, Faith might be jealous too if someone had a body like hers near her Mate,_ she thought with an internal smirk. “So I guess you’re the ‘Welcoming Committee?’”

The Alpha spat. “The name’s Verne and you’re trespassing. So before I set my Pack on you, you got anything to say?”

Faith decided to at least try one time to settle this peaceably. “Look, I’m just trying to get some food and temporary shelter for me and my Pack. We’ll be outta here before you know it.” Seeing the implacable expression on his face, she sighed as she casually turned to the side and began removing her hoodie, while mournfully toeing off her boots. She really wanted to try them out, but they’d probably become too small once she Shifted.

The sound of displaced air clued Faith to the attack. Then it was as if everyone else were in a slow-moving video, except Faith was in real-time, she quickly reached up and out, catching someone’s throat in her hand in mid-air, then crushing it, before throwing the choking male to the side. It was the stocky one. Well they were about to see a new trick. She began to Shift.

When Marianne came upon the attractive, dark-haired female, she knew that the Power she felt a couple miles back was her. She attempted to warn Verne to let it go, but he was big on protecting his territory after Anita visited. Plus this close to a full moon meant the Pack was itching for a fight. As she watched the huge creature tear into the Pack, she wondered if they had bitten off more than they could chew. She rushed over to Susan, who was currently dragging her legs behind her, while trying to slap away the lingering flames on her clothes and burning skin.

Closing her eyes, Marianne tried to ‘see’ the essence of the giant, black, hound. But all she could ‘see’ was a feral looking humanoid figure, crouched in front of an even larger, fiercer, version of the creature decimating their Pack. If they were not Weres their injuries would usually mean instant death, but as it was now and with the proper medical attention, they’d take a few days (or more) to recover. Once she placed Susan in the back of the truck, she attempted to gather the others. Verne was the only one left. But not for long; the creature effortlessly had him pinned to the ground, complete with one broken arm, bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose, as It stared down at him deadly intent.

Reverting to Partial-Shift, leaving her hands still clawed, teeth still jagged and dangerous, her canines gleaming and sharp, the darkened skin bled back to her natural olive-tanned color, fur swept back like water so that it was only lightly dusted on her shoulders, down the slight muscular concave down her back, and between her full and perky breasts. Faith discovered that Shifting was even worse on clothes than Slaying.

“I don’t wanna kill you. But you need to understand that I’ll do **anything** to keep my Pack safe. We ain’t plannin’ on stickin’ around here for more than two days and then we’ll be off. This lil’ meet-n-greet was my way of makin’ sure you don’t forget to be a good ‘host.’” Verne simply coughed up blood, while trying to maintain his glare with Faith’s own implacable one, until he finally nodded.

Patting his shoulder, Faith Shifted back further, her claws shortened to nails, her teeth decreased until only her fangs remained looking a little more dangerous than human-sized, the fur totally disappeared, and she decreased to her natural height. “Well it looks like you’ve got some healin’ to do and I gotta grab some dinner for me n’ the Pack.”

She grinned, showing off her impressive dimples as she smoothly flowed to her feet, making Verne take notice of  how beautiful the woman was who thoroughly and with little effort, blew through him and his Pack. She reached down to help Verne to his feet, extending the proverbial olive branch, breathing heavily from the fight. Meanwhile Marianne was busy performing small healing spells to staunch the more serious wounds, while trying to help everyone into their cars so they could hurry back to their compound to receive proper medical treatment. Plus she needed to confirm what her eyes were telling her: her first sighting of a very rare Were: a Hellhound or Were-Hound. Thought to be extinct or close to it, they lived hidden from the world, in secure locations.

Marianne was fairly strong and knowledgeable witch, which is why she was also confused. Because she sensed something else from the female; something very powerful other than her Beast, but she couldn’t discern what it could be. She also needed to call Anita and warn her. It didn’t appear that this powerful Were was looking to hurt anyone. However she did just effortlessly plow through a powerful Ulfric and his enforcers. That was worth mentioning. In addition, the woman indicated that she and her Pack were moving on soon and Marianne’s guess was that they were heading towards the nearest city: St. Louis. Marianne sighed, she didn’t envy all the stuff Anita had to deal with; Marianne helped when she could, but she always felt that it wasn’t enough. She figured a little research would help Anita if that Hound did mean any harm. But for now she’ll go help the Pack lick their wounds; both figuratively and literally. 


	9. Chapter 9

After Faith ordered what little the bar had in the way of food: mostly burgers and BLTs, she headed over towards the closest motel. That is after the many reassurances that she wasn’t there to hurt anyone and that she was simply defending herself. A few curious bar patrons had bravely ventured out as they heard fighting only to catch the tail-end of it; which meant Faith was the only one left standing mostly naked, and splattered in blood.  So the reassurances were slightly necessary in order to avoid more additional aggravation; she had enough of that from the local preternatural population.

Keying in the lock, she opened the door to the somewhat serviceable motel room. She dropped her purchases, plopped down onto the bed, needing a moment to gather herself. Well she certainly did a “splendid” job announcing her presence to the world. If the preternatural communities were anything like the one’s back home, her appearance on the scene would be flowing through various networks in no time.

 _Home._ She wondered if they were looking for her back home or if they’d written her off as dead. She’d deliberately avoided thinking about the world she’d been forced to leave behind, mostly because she been so engrossed in her new ‘body’ and the new world.

Masud and Isis had been giving her crash course on the way things worked in this ‘verse, both were mildly surprised that Faith didn’t know the basics. That was when she told her Pack that she came from another dimension.  Then in a fit of fear of abandonment, Miko threw herself into Faith’s arms, imploring Faith to promise to never leave her. She focused on the fast-growing cub, (Miko was now almost the size of a young teen), then looked at the carefully hidden fear in Masud and Isis’ eyes, and in that moment Faith vowed that no matter what happens in the future, she’d never leave them. They were Hers. Nevertheless, Faith had to think about the future and about the strong possibility that she was here to stay, which meant there were a lot of things to learn about this world.

Things were very different here.

For starters; Vampires and Weres had rights! There was always the belief back home that the ‘Sunnydale Effect’ had more to do with people not wanting to know that the ‘things that go bump in the night’ were real.   So in city after city, most people remained oblivious to the monsters lurking right under their noses, because the human population wouldn’t react well if they suddenly realized that the ‘creepy lady, in the creepy house down the street, who never opens her drapes, might actually be a demon, would **not** go over well.  As for this dimension, Vampires appeared to be a little different from the ones back home; apparently the powerful ones had different abilities, like the ability to control a specific Were group, or flying (!).And more importantly, there was some debate about whether or not they had souls. Plus they didn’t become bumpy-face when they fed.

 This she knew because she ran into a couple of them whom were affiliated with Verne’s Pack. Of course, once she tore a chunk from one of the Vampire’s necks, while setting the other on fire, they quickly backed-off.  She wondered what the Scoobies would do if they ended up here. Knowing Willow and Dawn they’d want to gather information before setting Buffy and Kennedy lose. Xander would be too busy salivating over the general Were attitude regarding the ‘nudity option’ clause.

 _Willow._

Longing, so intense and deep seemed to momentarily overwhelm her. Willow was the other reason why she didn’t really think about home. It was only through meditation, staying busy, and sheer will-power that Faith was able to suppress the need that seemed everywhere at once, that would occasionally creep up on her at the damndest times. At other times it stole her breath, particularly after a good Slaying or hunt. Her need to hunt or destroy seemed heightened in this new body—but because there seemed to be little in the way of things she can legally kill, or even outright demons she can get medieval on,  so she was often left unfulfilled energy.

But _the need_ , accompanied by visions of Willow, did crazy things to Faith. Visions of Willow in leather, laughing,  powerful, even angry (not Dark-Willow angry though), and even that moment in the Cleveland  HQ’s game-room, would sometimes send Faith’s body into an autonomic frenzy. Her skin would break out in goosebumps, her stomach quivered, nipples hardened, her clit became engorged and full, and she could feel her pre-cum begin to soak her panties (if she were wearing any).

Not to mention it’d been so long since she’d been able to cum because she’d been too busy recovering, hunting, or learning from her Pack, leaving her very little private-time to take _matters_ into her own hands. Faith started to wonder if she resembled a percolating kettle, with steam pouring out the spout, readying to pop. She thought about picking up some willing woman from the bar, but the thought of anyone but Red seemed to punch the breaks on her libido, not to mention that she’d been warned that sometimes during the height of orgasm, she could Shift, and probably kill someone who was human &/or severely injure someone who was an inexperienced or weaker Were. She was still learning about her new form and this included an entirely new perspective on ‘safe sex.’

 Her thoughts returned to her Red-Head, Faith closing her eyes as one hand slowly moved under her shirt, stroking up her abdomen, until she cupped her breast, the fullness spilling slightly through her fingers, until she squeezed her hardening nipple, imaging it was the Witch’s hand. The other hand slid underneath her unbuttoned cargo-pants, then slid her hand over her curls, and into the growing wet heat. For a moment she just cupped herself, her calloused palm rubbed gently against her swelling nub, while her fingers began sliding into between her inner-lips.

After rubbing back and forth a few times, almost creating a froth; it had been so long, at least for Faith, she dipped her fingers inside her grasping hole, coating them a bit before moving back to smear the hot liquid around her quivering nub. Faith sighed in pleasure, _divine_. Darkened summer-green eyes drove her fingers back into her now weeping hole, plunging them deep, making her body twist and jerk in response, her other hand continued to twist, roll, and pull her erect nipples as she switched back forth between either breasts. _This wasn’t going to take long_ , thought Faith. Usually she could edge it out for at least a good half-hour before cumming a couple times --if it’s just by her hand. But with a partner, mostly female partners, depending on their skill, could have Faith going all night. That was a rarity. Once Faith initially ‘popped’ a couple times, it wasn’t worth the effort to try to eek more out from her partners. They just couldn’t hang.

Despite B’s protestations, a high-sex drive was inherent in the Slayer. Add the Hound and the horniness seemed keener, brighter, and edgier. She wanted to feel nails digging bloody furrows into her back; she wanted a more piercing touch on her nipples. The thought of Willow fucking her with a huge strap-on had Faith on the edge of orgasm. She imagined herself on all-fours, her bottom slightly red from Red’s handprints, her chin wet from tasting the Witch’s juices, had Faith gushing as her walls began fluttering wildly around her fingers, as her orgasm began to wash over her.  The tremors finally started to tone down the burn in her veins, her panting echoed loudly in the otherwise silent room, she left her fingers curled, resting inside her. She turned her head towards the clock on the nightstand; it was just enough time to squeak a couple more before she had to make the trek back to nature to gather the Pack.


	10. Chapter 10

 St. Louis

 

Standing on the curb of the bus station, the Pack waited for their car to arrive. Faith remained tense, listening, feeling, watching, scenting, for any possible attacks. Miko stood next to her, practically bouncing in her brand new sneakers in excitement at being in someplace new with lots of tempting things to tempt her unique senses. Isis and Masud also stood guard, standing next to brand new giant duffle bags, stuffed with their brand new clothes. Once Faith got her Pack settled into the motel room, the following day Isis and Masud were on the phone making arrangements with the Caretakers to have their accounts made available. Once they arrived in St. Louis representatives will meet up with them to begin Faith’s initiation into the Circle. Apparently once they were settled into the safe-house by the Caretakers, they were to wait for Safiya’s imminent arrival.

All good for Faith. It’d give her some time to scope out this city. St. Louis was a hot-bed of preternatural activity. So much so, that debriefing materials were waiting at their safe-house for their review. But Faith was an ‘action girl’, she figured she’d give the documents a quick skim, and then head out. But first things first, a pizza delivery was crucial.

 

 

***

 

Standing on the other side of the door was a short, with skin the color of almonds, woman. Her head was piled high with dredlocks, interwoven with conch shells and other delicate jewelry. She wore a patterned dress the color of chocolate and sand. But it was her eyes that clued Faith in that she was a Were-Hound, perhaps even an Elder. They were ancient, all-knowing, and an icy greenish-yellow, like the color of Mountain Dew.

“You must be Faith.” With an unreadable expression on her face, the woman looked the Slayer up and down. When her eyes reached Faith’s once again, the expression had changed to one of cautious hope.

Suddenly she reached over and hugged Faith. “I am Safiya. I have been waiting a very, very, long time for you  _ **Shuhan**_.”

Looking confused, Faith replied. “Ahh, listen lady, the name’s Faith, not Shogun or whatever.”

Then she remembered something Isis and Masud had mentioned about calling The Circle’s High Priestess, before a look of comprehension washed over her face. “Oh, you’re that Priestess-lady?”

Stepping back to allow her entrance, she stepped around Safiya to grab her single bag on the front porch, then following their esteemed guest inside. With a look of amusement, Safiya continued on into the house, taking in the interior, until she walked into the waiting arms of Isis and Masud for a gripping hug. “It has been too long Safiya. I trust your journey was well?”

Miko followed shyly behind, reaching out through Faith’s bond for reassurance around the new, very powerful Were-Hound. Graceful, nut-brown hands cupped the shoulders of both Isis and Masud, staring into their faces, with piercing, icy-yellow eyes.

“The journey was long, but thank the spirits that it was uneventful.” She paused to briefly shoot an unreadable look towards Faith, then smiled at Miko, before returning her attention to Masud and Isis. “The Circle has been abuzz with your newfound  _ **Shuhan**_.”

Returning her attention to Faith, with Miko standing next to her, she continued with her beautifully accented-voice. “Such a  _ **Shuhan**_  hasn’t been in existence in many centuries.” She slowly walked towards Faith, stopping a few inches from her. “Naturally I had to come see for myself and properly welcome her to The Circle.”

As she spoke, Faith found herself locked in her gaze, as if some kind of mystical wispy-like connection was weaving itself into Faith’s newer, feral, preternatural instincts. Her Hound awakened from slumber, sat up, staring with lazy intent at the newest Hound in front of It. Her Slayer- Sineya, tilted her head to the side as if figuring out a complex puzzle. Faith watched as those icy-yellow eyes, grew darker, irises slowly narrowing down until they seemingly disappeared. The Slayer also began to take notice; the presence in front of Faith was ancient, seemingly all-knowing, and while she was smaller, wirier than Faith, she gave the appearance of being ‘larger than life,’ making the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.

Safiya calmly and in a non-threatening manner, lifted elegant hands up towards Faith’s head. “Allow me to  _ **see**_  if you are truly  _ **Shuhan**_. I would  _ **know**_ you, The Circle would  _ **know**_  you.” She began circling around a Faith, staring intently at her, inside her, to glean  _who_  and  _what_  she was.

Frowning, Faith followed Safiya’s eyes and seeing no artifice, she gave her a slight nod of consent. “Ok. But no funny stuff.”

She looked over at Isis and Masud, who nodded their support, allowing some of Faith’s tension to drain from her before she returned her attention to the female slowly circling her.

When Safiya completed her circuitous route around Faith, then coming to rest in front of Faith again, she lifted almost too- hot, calloused, palms, and then gently, but firmly, cupped on either side of Faith’s brow. Her fingers slid up a little ways before tangling themselves in Faith’s hair until they gently gripped alongside her scalp. Later Faith could only describe what happened next would be akin to something like an intense psychedelic trip through her life, through the history of The Circle, through the lives of her Pack, until she ‘stood’ before her Hellhound and Sineya.

Imagine your out-of-body aura was being tugged along a roller-coaster ride of vivid, swirling, colors interspersed with short videos of all of lives long-lived, along with the ancient history of the Were-Hound. Add to that, were the emotions associated with those vivid moments and then those echoing emotions filling you up like a glass of water. It was overwhelming for a moment, Faith almost fell over gasping and bellowing great tufts of air when Safiya let go. Instead she ended up bent over at the waist, hands on knees, sweat dampening her clothes, as her chest heaved great gusts of air.

Rolling sands, the smell of heat and sweat and fire; great giant paws galloping along giant sand dunes, interspersed with lush Palm trees, until finally the body skidded before a huge tan-colored temple that seemed to rise out of the sand. A huge open doorway lined with scrolling symbols, possibly an ancient language along the frame of the doorway. Giant Palm trees and marble statues of fierce-looking Were-Hounds stood on either side of the entrance. In the mouth and eyes of those statues burned flames like a jack-o-lantern. Faith/Were-Hound cautiously passed through the doorway, a multitude of earthy smells and sandalwood assaulted her nose. Sconces lined a wide hallway, giving off ambient light, as she slowly crept forward, her body seemingly knowing where it needed to go.

Until she came to another open doorway, with two gold busts of Were-Hounds on either side of the doorway. The strong scents dominating her senses, suddenly gave way to a feeling the floor giving out from under her, followed by an immediate stomach-dropping sensation, while a wave of Power, coming from more than one source, enveloped her. That coalesced Power felt almost physical, pressing against her, testing her own power like a wall of water, but it also felt like she was standing next to the sun. Faith pressed through and a cooling sensation washed over her silky, black fur.

And found herself in a large cavernous room, with an unnamed light source spilling into the room. A raised marble dais with intricately carved designs of various animals and stolen scenes at the base, sat at the head of the room or opposite Faith. On the dais sat several throne-like chairs, with Were-Hounds sitting on them. Or that was the scent of them, they weren’t fully Shifted, but mostly reposed in their somewhat human guises. Some had Shifted their hands into giant paws, almost all of them had their gleaming and dangerous fangs peeking beyond their bottom lips. Others had a light dusting of fur from inky-black similar to Faith’s, or fur the color warm caramel. The men wore loin-clothes, while the women wore long, flowing, white skirts, along with a strap-less, bikini-like halter-top. There were eight chairs, but two remained empty.

From milky white skin and piercing golden eyes to gleaming ebony skin with the most extraordinary icy-blue eyes, were Were-Hounds of varying colors and genders, emanating Power so fierce and ancient, it felt as the centuries were pelting Faith’s body through that Power. One of the female Were-Hounds stood; tiny like B, yet the waves of Power flowing from her was like standing next to a Tesla Coil – electric and intense. Standing a little over five-feet, skin a little lighter than Faith’s, complimented by almond-shaped eyes whose color were similar to Faith’s: reddish-orange, an almost coppery-color, with flecks of gold. All of this was capped by long, blue-black hair, hanging straight as a ruler, down her back.

“We have waited a long time for you Slayer.” She slowly glided towards Faith.

The Power started to feel like fire ants crawling along Faith’s skin, but she somehow stifled the urge to scratch at the sensation through sheer will power. When she finally stopped a couple steps from Faith she paused, staring intently into the new Slayer-Hound’s eyes. Her Slayer, sensing a predator of the highest order and Power even greater than hers, warily watched as she approached, preparing to fight. But as she came closer, Sineya seemed to sense that this moment was important and quelled her instincts to fight.

Faith tried to Shift back to her more human form, but for some reason she couldn’t. She let out a growl of frustration until the woman lifted a delicate hand, and laid it on one of Faith’s huge, muscular, furry shoulder. “Calm yourself my child. You cannot stand before us, the Elders, in the great Temple of the Hound in your human guise,” and immediately Faith started to calm down the moment she laid her hand on her.  “The energy here won’t allow it. My name is Pele.”

But Faith wondered why then weren’t the Elders in their Hell-Hound forms, not to mention how or why she was here. As if she was reading Faith’s mind she answered. “You are here because my Sister has found a new home. In you.” She waved her hand towards the empty chairs. “As our kind was killed off, some of Hosts were killed off, and with them the energy of an Elder disappeared. We thought gone forever. But one has found a home in you.”

She stepped closer to Faith, reaching her hand up, caressing the air from the young Were-Hound’s shoulder to her forehead. “Now we will  _ **know**_  you and know if my Sister has found a worthy vessel.”  With that she laid her palm on Faith’s silky-furred forehead, suddenly a sensation similar to a sonic boom and heat exploded behind her eyes, and then her world went black.

***

When she began to regain consciousness back in real-time, she found herself surrounded by her Pack. Miko was curled anxiously around her body, Isis and Masud sitting protectively on either side of her body, while her head lay in Safiya’s lap. Slowly blinking her eyes open was a painful process. It even felt like her cells were protesting her surge to wakefulness.

Miko noticed Faith was awakening immediately threw herself over Faith’s body. “Faith! Are you ok? I was so worried when you wouldn’t wake up, but the Shamaness,” she paused to glare at Safiya, who only looked amused, “said you were being tested.”

Faith soothingly patted Miko’s back to calm her and hoarsely responded. “Yeah, I think she was right.” She slowly sat up, feeling, testing, the soreness in her muscles, until she focused her attention on Safiya. “You wouldn’t happen to of heard of someone named… Pele or … Andraste?” Stunned silence met her inquiry.

Safiya, Masud, and Isis, looked at her as if she were something wondrous. Safiya shifted closer. Needless to say after last time she peered into Faith’s eyes, Faith was more than a little wary. “The Elders. Only to a powerful Shamaness, after a great many offerings and ceremony, would they appear. The Elders haven’t appeared to a  _ **Shuhan**_ in centuries.” The icy greenish-gold eyes began to get glassy with unshed tears. She clasped Faith’s hands.

“I had lost hope that we would be left to die out. But The Elders have seen fit to grant us a second chance.” Faith felt the beginnings of panic - she hunted down bad things, maybe stopped an Apocalypse or two, but a savior she ain’t.

“People assume that the Great Hound is a Hell-Hound, a beast that drags beings to Hell. But that is a myth.”

Faith raised her hand. “I know. I was given a crash course by Pele. We are the Beasts to protect and guide those in the Netherworld.  Some we guide to Hell or their version of it and others get a trip elsewhere; Heaven, 77 Virgins, Vahalla, whatever. She said there were Eight Elders, two had disappeared, believed to have given up their spirit. It turns out, one of em’ is curled around my Slayer.”

Faith shakily stood, stunning the group into silence once again. “But now, I’m hungry, so if you could research what all that means, I’d appreciate it.” Miko popped off the floor to follow Faith into the kitchen. She sensed lots of important stuff was going down, and it had to do with her Blood-Sister, which in her book, meant:  ** _cool_**. 


	11. Chapter 11

The Shamaness, Safiya elected to stay with their Pack – an opportunity to be a spiritual guide for a Were-Hound like Faith was an honor, especially since Faith was a vessel for an Elder. That didn’t stop her worrying about Faith’s link to her dimension. She thought Faith’s chances of returning to her dimension were great, but she decided not to tell her because she had so little information to go on. Plus, she wanted to make sure Faith would be ready to officially be their  ** _Shuhan._** They hadn’t had one since the last one was killed six years ago. But Safiya felt that Faith was strong, stronger than the last Shuhan, and her Pack was an even stronger resource.

The dynamics of the Pack had quickly set. Masud was like big brother to Faith; a quiet demeanor, yet with a quick wit, an intense intelligence and was extremely loyal. Next to Miko, he has sworn to protect Faith, rather like a bodyguard. Safiya suspects that more will arrive, wanting to join this Pack since Faith needed more protecting deserving of her status as a true  ** _Shuhan_**. Isis on the other hand, loved books and research, and was beginning to learn more of the mystical ways of The Circle.

So it made sense that she was now apprenticing with Safiya. Surprisingly it was Miko who was the glue of this Pack; they all loved her unconditionally. When she was excited and happy it was hard to not feel those same sensations.  Plus, aside from bars and clubs, wherever Faith went, Miko accompanied her. They were inseparable.  Another reason why more… muscle was needed for the Pack because if anyone wanted to get to Faith, Miko was one way of doing so.

Safiya was planning on calling the last of all the Hellhounds to hold a  ** _Naqua Ceremony_** : an official initiation into the Hellhound Pride. It will be extra special because Faith will be recognized as one of the rare  ** _Celestial-Shuhan:_** a leader who embodies the  ** _Guardians of Souls_** , ** _Chosen_**  host of an Elder of the  ** _Original Pack_**  or the ** _Old Ones_**. Plus, it allowed Faith and her Pack a chance to select additional members to stay in St. Louis as new Pack members. Especially because St. Louis was proving to be very interesting; a great deal of Power resided here. And Power begets Power, which means something or someone will come looking for Faith soon. Safiya had been hearing about the Master of the City: Jean-Claude, his Necromancer and Human Servant: Anita Blake. It was best to gather as much information before they approached him. And approach him they must.  A Master of the City that powerful has many ‘eyes’ and ‘ears,’ he will expect Faith to formally introduce herself soon, or there will be repercussions.

***

Faith was currently nibbling on a chicken wing, watching the occupants across the room as she tried desperately not to snicker. She only thought Prince and drag queens wore that much lace, but apparently the Vamps in this world couldn’t get enough of the stuff.  _Spike would DEFINITELY label this guy Jean-Claude, a Poofter for sure_ , she thought with a smirk. Good thing she listened to Safiya and added some Pack-Muscle – as she liked to call it. Otherwise, she’d be annoyed that her partying was being interrupted because the Master of the City wanted ‘words’ with her. Going with feeling annoyed anyways since she’d been looking forward to blowing off some steam after an intense few weeks, instead playing Model UN, followed by all the “inner-eye” stuff.

First was the vision quest confirming her so-called importance within The Circle and the name of her Were-Hound,  **Andraste.** Added to this was their uber-unsettling statement that “…the Red Witch is your destined Queen, a  **Blood-Bond,**  but that there will be a  **Guardian-Bond** ; one that will be the rock, the foundation…,” for her and Willow. They also indicated that this person would have a “dual-nature”. Whatever the hell that meant. The least surprising bit of info was that Miko was essentially her Blood-Sister. She could live with that; there’s nothing Faith wouldn’t do to for the kid. Following that was the parade of Were-Hounds that seemed to be showing up on their front door almost every other day.

Apparently, since being hunted to near extinction, the number of Packs were few and far, so the opportunity to belong to one was very attractive. Especially one where Faith was a  ** _Celestial-Shuhan_** and whose inner-Hound happened to be an Elder. It was weird meeting people who looked at a girl like Faith, dirt poor, who grew up on the Southside of Boston, with only a GED, as if she were some kind of demi-god and savior. A new Were-Hound from Spain, named Adelina and a set of dangerous, yet sexy Triplets from Argentina, ( _which was still trippy on SO many levels_ ) had already offered their… admittedly hot bods… several times. However, both her Slayer and Andraste decided they were _unworthy_ ; which was irritating for many reasons because Faith had an  _itch_  that desperately needed scratching.

Now her Pack numbered a dozen, along with Masud as her Head Enforcer, Isis her friend and advisor and researcher, Safiya their in-house priestess and main advisor, and now Gustavo, Elise, and Larry, were her new Enforcers.  After several arguments, Faith finally gave into the requests from Safiya, Isis, and Masud that whenever Faith went out, especially among a large group of other Preternaturals, Faith must travel with her Enforcers and either Isis, Masud, or Safiya, whenever she went out. Apparently, St. Louis had some… issues and Safiya believed in being prepared. An area called the Blood District; home to many things preternatural and Vampire. Currently she was in an establishment owned by the Master of the City, called  **Danse Macabre**. And she’d been having a good time, even with the exasperating pending meeting with this Jean-Claude dude. Isis and the Triplets - Bella, Chloe, and Soledad had been tearing up the dance floor, and teasing the boys and girls, before a strapping male, a Werewolf she believed, tapped Faith on the shoulder, and said her presence was required.

Right before she reached up to break a few fingers, Isis had stepped in and suggested that it was more than likely a request from the Master of the City, and that it wouldn’t do to piss people off needlessly. Faith gave a petulant growl, slugged back the shot of J.D. she had nearby, and followed the errand boy. Shielding mightily, because an element of surprise would be helpful in case the situation went south. She’d be dealing with a room full of powerful Master Vampires and Weres, with herself, Masud, Larry, and Isis. No way would she; a) let Miko come no matter how much she insisted, and b) more importantly, meant leaving Safiya behind.

So here she was casually slouched in a leather chair, nibbling from a platter of food nearby, completely ignoring the ‘muscle’ glaring at her as they attempted to find out who/what she was through their Beasts. She could smell lots of Wolf, a couple of Rats, and a hint of death indicating the two Vamps. Apparently they were waiting on someone. As boredom and the need for action crept into her, she decided to let loose a little of her Beast and the Slayer.  Narrowing her eyes, she ignored the brief look of warning from Isis while she lowered her Shields just a tad. Only since she was still… learning things about her new “upgrade,” what should have been just a sprinkling of Power, was instead a brief blast, causing anyone aside from her Pack to stumble, losing their balance, as guns cleared their holsters, and bodies readied for a fight.  _Crap_ , thought Faith,  _she thought she’d have at least a little more time before she started pissing people off_. 


	12. Chapter 12

Suddenly the door slammed open and a short, dark-haired woman entered with her gun drawn, followed by a short male with wavy, long, burnished-brown hair, another male, tall, with yet again, long, but gorgeous-you-can’t-get-that-color-out-of-a-bottle, red hair, and the most amazing green eyes she’d ever seen. Next in line was another short male, with blonde-hair, who apparently loves PVC and a smirk, but the fluid way he moved meant it would be stupid to underestimate him. The next person through the door screamed muscle; tall, with skin the color of milk chocolate, corn-rowed braids, eyes narrowed menacingly on Faith, next was another tall male, with wavy reddish-brown hair, broad shoulders, and was so obviously male. Back in her want-take-have days in Sunnyhell, Faith would’ve probably taken him for a ride.

Whatever, this was A LOT of people in a room. A lot of people who WEREN’T her Pack. “So is this practice for your clown-car or you actually got something to say?”

The short, dark-haired woman, who was oozing all kinds of wonky, but powerful stuff, took a moment to holster her gun. “My name is Anita Blake.  You or,” she waved her hand towards her Pack members, “your people have yet to swear a Blood Oath, or at the very least, present yourselves to the Master of the City, nor to the Ulfric of the  **Thronnos Rokke Clan**. I am also Jean-Claude’s Human Servant.”

Faith sighed, finished the rest of her brownie before taking a moment to wipe her hands, and then languidly stood up, increasing the tension.  She managed to curb her instinct to respond in her usual smart-ass manner, appreciating that this was a… delicate situation. But she’d be damned if she’d be grabbing her ankles for anyone – including the Master of the City.

“Look we’re just trying to have good time here, we ain’t causin’ no problems, anywhere.” She took a step towards Anita, causing the men nearby to tense, letting loose a couple of warning growls. “And I ain’t really the… registering type. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll send ‘im a postcard.”

The tall, male with wavy, brownish-red hair spoke. “You may be able to ‘send him a postcard,’ but that will not work with me.” He sniffed the air. “You smell…like wolf, but… not.” The black male stepped closer to Faith, almost within her personal space, trying to intimidate her as he washed his Beast, and sheer presence over her.

For a moment she had to work very hard to calm Andraste and her Slayer, because he was attempting to show his Dominance over her, or so he thought. But Faith didn’t want to do the ‘Big Reveal’ just yet.  “Look buddy, either take step or five back, cause I don’t let other dogs hump my leg.”

He snarled as Faith rolled her eyes. “Well this has been fun, but I’m feelin’ a lil’ claustrophobic. So tell MC I’ll do a meet n’ greet tomorrow.” She returned her attention towards the tall male with the wavy hair. “I’m guessing that power I’m feelin’ from your Beast means you’re the Ulfric. Name’s Faith.” She held out her hand to Mr. Hunk not only because it was polite, but also because she wanted to ‘feel’ him out a little more, AND figure out why he ‘smelled’ like the woman.

“Richard. I invite you to the Lupanar in two days. I’ll send someone to collect you.”

Richard may be Ulfric, but Faith was  ** _the_**   ** _Celestial-Shuhan_**  Hell-Hound and the last the Chosen Slayer-line, in her book, that made her a few steps up from King-Wolfie. Although she didn’t want him to know that… yet. She also knew she wasn’t leaving this room until he understood that he ** _needed_**  to ask. Looking over towards Isis and Masud, who understood the dynamics of Preternatural society, watching as they stood up a little straighter and moved a little closer. Then Faith lowered her shields again, but a little more. Let the fireworks begin!

Faith watched as Richard’s eyes went wolf-amber, the Power pouring off of him like waves crashing onto a beach. A growl leaked out of Faith’s mouth; she could practically see Andraste pacing back and forth, puffs of fire expelling from her mouth, while her Slayer simply tilted her head, on the balls of her feet, her legs bent and ready, her hands clenched tight, wanting to lash out. So while Richard’s Beast felt like waves of heat, Faith’s was like a tsunami.

She watched as Richard shuddered under the strength of her Power, trying to stay in control, because if he Shifted, Faith would see that as aggression, and she would have Shift in return. Faith was trying to avoid a fight. She could hear the whines and growls from the other occupants of the room. So Faith ‘flamed-on’ her partially Shifted hands, an orb of flames hovering from her palms. Faith seemed larger, her presence filling the room, washing over everyone in the room, causing the Submissives like Jason to whine and curl up on themselves as they involuntarily Shifted, while Anita braced herself against a table nearby, panting heavily as she tried to control the  _Ardeur_. Her body gave an occasional jerk and shudder as if she were being hit -- the several strains of Weres inside her were pacing and snarling at this unknown, yet very powerful threat.

Anita stumbled-walked over towards Faith and Richard, causing Faith to shift her attention from the Ulfric to the woman. The room was leaking so much Power that others nearby felt as if they were next to a power plant, and throughout the city, any Preternatural, Vampire, or Witch would immediately be alerted by yet another Power surge in the Blood District. Even an alert went out the local authorities in charge of all things supernatural: RPIT – Regional Preternatural Investigation Team.  But at that moment several things happened: Anita grabbed onto Richard’s forearm at the same time Richard gripped Faith’s arm, as Faith pressed a flamey-hand into Richard’s chest. The smell of roses suddenly grew strong and cloying. At that moment the world exploded around them. 


	13. Chapter 13

The following morning found Faith sitting at her kitchen table nursing a hot and very strong cup of coffee. She was currently marveling over her kitchen view of the early-morning sky: black with overlaid with dark-to-light gray, and a hint of oranges and reds bleeding through from the threat of sunrise. The accompanied chirping birds resonating unnaturally loud in her ears was slightly agonizing, but probably no less than she deserved. She sighed at the look of disapproval and exasperation emanating from Safiya. The headache rockin’ her skull had yet to lessen. If she didn’t know any better she could’ve sworn that she’d ingested several bottles of J.D.  But instead she’d woken up in that weird period between early-morning-to-late-night hours, to a roomful of Shifted Weres, Vampires bleeding from their eyes, their cries, moans, and growls littered the air, along with the strong metallic smell of blood and other fluids.

_Richard’s forearm bled from its compound fracture, a bone sticking out through the fingers of her Shifted paws, as she gripped it tightly. He still knelt on the ground, his head tilted to the side, and unconscious. Part of his body laid across one of Faith’s thighs, as she apparently had become unconscious while partially lying across him. She also became aware of Anita’s gun was once again pointed at her; the woman’s eyes were completely onyx, with sparkly stars in them, startlingly brilliant against her pale skin.  At that point, Faith moved faster than even Anita could anticipate or could see, letting Richard fall over on his side, Faith flew to her feet, sweeping the gun arm aside, then grabbed Anita’s other arm, to swing her into Faith’s body, Anita’s back to Faith’s front._

_“I need you to listen to me very carefully. I’m fairly new at this Were-thing, but believe me when I tell ya, that I gotta a lot of ‘juice,’ with a specialty in kicking-ass. The kind of experience that could put almost ALL of these girly-boys, even you, to shame, makin’ your Master of the City more n’ a little uncomfortable. But I ain’t lookin’ to cause problems for me, but especially for my Pack.”_

_She clutched Anita to her tighter as the Ulfric woke up, and was being helped up by the Black male and the female, both who were Shifted. “So I need you to call your boy-toys off, I need you to arrange a meet n’ greet with MC,” she pause as she felt another presence or three getting closer, “just tell him I ain’t interested in anything other than protecting my Pack. “_

_Faith sniffed along Anita’s neck, closing her eyes before they popped open in surprise. “What’s with the zoo?!” Faith saw a blue tiger growl at her, before Faith’s Beast lowered its great head, fire shooting out of its mouth, and then growled back. The tiger paused before whining, and then submissively showed her neck as the Slayer stepped up next to the Hound, growling, showing her teeth. The Vampires around the room and other Enforcers unleashed swords or guns.  “Do I smell like I’m lying? I need you to chill everyone out, before someone gets hurt. I won’t ask again.”_

_Anita stilled her struggling. “Ok, everyone just… settle down.” She returned her attention to Faith. “In my experience no one with that amount of Power, doesn’t want anything.”_

_“I see your point. But I’m only tellin’ my story to the MC and if he’s worthy I’ll even give up a Blood Oath. Since you’re his human servant, make sure you’re on time, cause I ain’t tellin’ it more than once.” She felt Anita startle in surprise._

_In the meantime, Faith sniffed her again, her lips brushing along her ear, just because she could tell the woman wasn’t exactly comfortable in another woman’s clutches… or maybe it’s just Faith. Smirking she suddenly let Anita go, causing her to momentarily stumble before Anita unleashed one of her deadly-stares.  Faith wasn’t impressed. But that’s when she felt a wash of something… else from Anita, causing goosebumps to break out all over Faith’s skin. Suddenly the smell of roses permeated strongly in the air._

_“Shit!”  The expletive exploded from Anita’s lips, her eyes now the color of honey-colored flames. Quickly following that a few of Anita’s people hauled Richard and her from the room, while Masud and Larry grabbed up Faith, as Isis attempted to exchange contact information with the short, long-haired, male with the cat eyes._

Back in the moment, Faith sighed; she just knew Safiya was gonna smack her upside her head.


	14. Chapter 14

Faith rubbed a hand along her brow and suddenly felt the need for some fresh air, she languidly stood, stretching, swallowing the last of her third cup of coffee, before rinsing it out in the sink, looking out onto the huge backyard, until she noticed a weird orb of light.

Safiya came to join her, feeling a shift in the energy on their domain. Faith started for the back door. “Stay here and make sure everyone stays inside.”

***

Alexa Woods

_Alexa Woods or Lex just returned from a visit to Cuba, tanned and physically recovered from her ordeal in the Antarctic Ocean. When she finally unlocked the door to her loft, the space almost seemed to let out a gasp of dust and stuffiness because it had remained empty for more than 2 months. She wondered for a moment if she should go get her cat from her neighbor, the owner of a food co-op store, in the loft apartment downstairs. Sighing, she wondered if her cat would even remember her. She’d never been gone so long, but then her experience was unlike anything anyone could imagine._

_Powerful government and a private security companies would probably kill for the high-tech weapons she now owned. She looked at the packages that had been waiting for her at a storage containment facility she’d arranged following the events of Bouvetøya Island. The medium-sized crate sat near her stainless steel and onyx-marble kitchen countertop. She held off on opening it up. To open it meant vividly reliving Bouvetøya Island and she did that enough when she attempted to sleep at night. Running a hand through her dark curls, she wandered over to her phone, noticing the blinking light indicating messages._

_Lex was a renowned adventure woman and explorer – one of the few Black professionals in the field, and the only Black woman. She imagined that the word was out about the expedition to Bouvetøya Island, but she remained off-the-grid just enough to avoid inquiries; both governmental and private. Her mother remained supportive, her father died during an expedition up Mount Everest from a blood clot. Lex had managed to carry him down the mountain only for that blood clot to finally move into his brain. But he taught her almost everything, only nothing could have prepared her for Bouvetøya Island. Now her mom was confused and scared because she hadn’t done her check-in that she usually did whenever she came back from an excursion. Once she managed to make it to Cuba for some down time, she contacted her frantic mother, over the noise of other family members in the background, ensuring her that Lex was all right. Luckily, she had extended family able to keep her mother company when Lex was out on assignment. Compliments of a upper middle-class family, both parents were high-achievers, her mom was a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, a steady, calm presence to accompany her high-energy, Indiana-Jones-like father. It was these qualities that bled into Lex as she grew into her own. It was also these qualities that allowed her to survive Bouvetøya Island, and were helping to maintain her sanity now._

_Her frenetic energy and perfect recall allowed her to get a PhD from Columbia University in Archeology. But her upbringing had never been suited towards attempting to assimilate: get married, have 2.5 kids, with a dose of heavy church-going.  Alexa had been lucky enough to be provided with the tools and experiences most people never have. Following that trip to Kashmir and India, she spent a summer trying to rock climb, followed by white water-rafting, she was hooked, and she never looked back._

_Admittedly Lex was an adrenaline junkie and while testing oneself against forces much greater than you tended to be a privileged (because it took money for surfing, rock-climbing, or a safari and the time not dedicated to a 9-5), and predominantly white vocation, Alexa stood out. But because she was knowledgeable, fearless, smart, lucky, and she was very good at her job. It also didn’t hurt that she was good-looking. A beautiful African-American woman snowboarding down the slopes at Whistler/Blackcomb in Canada or heading up an archeological team in Yemen, made her rather memorable._

_So before long she was heading up some explorations for National Geographic, the Smithsonian, the New York Natural Museum of History, and then private companies willing to pay very good money to find an exotic flower in Jakarta, or a rarely seen mineral in Botswana. The more dangerous, the more thrilling it was for Lex. Until Bouvetøya Island. That place left an indelible mark on her; in more ways the one._

_Standing at 5’7, her extreme physical lifestyle carved out a sleekly-muscled physique, skin the color of warm, café ole, eyes the color of dark chocolate, almost almond-shaped, and her hair now the color of burnished mahogany with reddish highlights from the sun, fell in slight waves down her back. Or that was the way she looked before Bouvetøya Island. Her once dark chocolate eyes began to have more almost burnished amber undertone to them, not to mention her eyesight was unreal. She could see at distances no human should be able to. But that wasn’t the only change. Her hearing was… even now the sound of the city filled her head, grating on her brain like rubbing her knuckles against a grater. She also moved differently… like a predator; languid, rolling muscles that shifted smoothly underneath her skin, unnatural stillness when she found something or someone threatening nearby, and other feral urges._

_Taking deep even breaths, Lex tried to center herself, to lessen the impact of her heightened senses, block out the more irritating sounds, she could then breathe easier. Even if it was the distinct smell of that cheap cigar that Victor, her local bodega owner from a block over, loved to smoke. Rolling shoulder muscles to alleviate additional tension, she was reminded of the ‘other’ changes._

_She was stronger; much stronger. She found that she could lift car with little to no effort. She was also faster, so fast she could keep up with a car driving at forty-five miles per hour. She could jump higher and longer, with a body-control that even the most gifted athlete would hard-pressed to replicate, she was beyond a world-class athlete—she was becoming a medical impossibility. In addition, her healing powers could only be called hyper-regeneration. Bones that cracked back into place or weeping wounds that closed before her very eyes, only added to her growing confusion._

_But it was when she became angry or almost any strong emotion that she really began to scare herself. Her nails would turn black and grow into long, dangerous claws, her gums became sensitive because her teeth were lengthening, particularly her incisors. If she felt threatened in any way it took everything, every lesson in meditation, or every prayer she knew to not rip apart that threat. And she learned that the hard way._ _That completely mauled sailor on the boat that rescued her continued to haunt her dreams. Upon her rescue, as her slowly closing wounds were dressed, she told a story that she knew no one would believe, and they didn’t. They chalked it up to her being “exposed to the elements” and whatever trauma she recently endured. That was fine, because the truth was too terrible to believe. When they let her rest that was when she concocted a more palatable story for the Weyland Corporation, for the media, for her friends, for her colleagues, and for the authorities. Especially for the authorities, because Lex realized that it was more than them not trying to pin the murders of scientists, archeologists, and mercenaries on her. It was trying to prevent a ruthless government-sponsored faction from digging up something that they would no doubt, unknowingly unleash onto the world. Hence, the reason why she made arrangements for the alien technology to be sent ahead to a private and secure facility. She knew scientists would kill for a sample of the species she somehow escaped by a hairs-breath. But then she hadn’t really escaped, had she?_

_After the grueling, two-week, long interrogation by both the F.B.I., the State Department, and Weyland Company officials, she was finally released. She somehow managed to skip out on the full medical check-up by making sure to cover up her rapidly changing biology, which in hindsight proved to be a good idea. Since her phone had been lost in one of the many rooms she was nearly killed in at Bouvetøya Island, (along with some of her closest friends and colleagues), she knew her answering machine was probably filled to the brim. A large grumble in her stomach reminded her that she had to eat, again. That was another addition to her Change; her increased appetite, in all things._

_Lex put the phone on speaker to listen to her messages while she rummaged through her take-out menus. She had so much stuff to do. Not to mention she knew she wanted to get a full diagnostic work-up on her new body; but who could she trust? Perhaps one of her contacts through her work with the museums or at her alumni._

_Honestly, Lex was scared; what were the extent of these changes, would they become even more noticeable, or worse was she becoming like either of those creatures? She stilled; the unnatural, animal-like stillness her body had become accustomed to as she listened to the messages from the State Department, from a technology arm of the Weyland Corporation, and from her bank indicating the substantial payment from the late Charles Bishop Weyland, to the tune of ten million dollars._

_There was also messages from her friend Sebastian’s family and another from Weyland’s nephew. She decided to call her mother first, who’d been worried sick about her, and then she’d call Seb’s family. The others could wait until tomorrow… or the next._ For now, she had other needs.


	15. Chapter 15

It was the sensation of water slipping down her neck that woke her. Immediately following that was the need to desperately swallow the bile stinging the back of her throat. Her body felt like it’d be squeezed through a presser, her skin felt hot and tight, with intense pain, and as she began to shift her muscles screamed in protest. A groan fell from Lex’s too dry lips as she registered the condition of her body while it continued to ‘wake up.’ Of course her body now played host to a  _living thing_ that’d been steadily growing, changing her on a cellular level, to more something more than human. Luckily she appeared as human, but cue in one provocative moment and her new, alien, more feral characteristics would come to the forefront.

However, none of that mattered at the moment as the sharp pain began to dull to a throbbing sensation. Alexa tried to open her eyes, but immediately shut them as brilliant sunlight stung her eyes. She squeezed them shut for a few more moments, Lex began scenting the air as she stretched out her other senses to ascertain where she was. The last thing Alexa remembered was running; she’d been running from some goons that she suspected were sent by Weyland’s greedy nephew, Daniel Weyland. He believed she was hiding something very valuable from her trip to Bouvetøya Island and that she had a hand in his Uncle’s death. The second belief didn’t really concern him or it didn’t until he discovered that he received very little in his Uncle’s will. Seemed like Charles had him pegged, but Daniel refused to let his dwindling circumstances deter him from the Weyland fortune.

Consequently, to the astonishment of the goons chasing after her, when she leaped across roofs, scaled up a wall inhumanly quick, and then crushed the larynx of one of the goons with her bare hand while throwing another through thick-glassed windows to plummet to his death a dozen stories later, she remained unaware of some orb of light growing behind her. Triggered by Daniel the Douche, a device conjured by some nefarious warlock he coerced to do something not good no doubt, but Daniel being Daniel probably chanted the wrong words, or said them in the wrong order, and the spell went ‘south.’

This is how Alexa found herself lying in what was apparently grass, if the tickling along her skin was any indication.  As if the events from Bouvetøya Island weren’t enough. With a groan she slowly tried to shift incredibly sore limbs so that she could turn onto her back. At the moment she was trying to not to accidentally inhale dirt and grass, and gawd knows what else. Using her senses as she minutely lifted her head, her dark curls tumbled around her face, brushing the smells of her shampoo and conditioner against her nose. However, she tried to focus on other scents, and with a grunt she shifted again, to slowly turn onto her back. Then she allowed her hearing to sort out the different sounds, hoping for more clues.

The smell of freshly mowed grass, damp earth, sweat, and air slightly tinted with pollution were the more obvious scents. There were other, more tantalizing, scents that only someone/thing with a heightened, preternatural sense of smell could detect; bubble-gum snapping from a distance, the tangy-salty smell of tears from a little boy who’d fallen down, a complex floral scent, most likely a perfume, all weaved themselves like colored-smoke through her nose. With her eyes closed she could almost ‘see’ the microscopic droplets of each smell in the air, and indication of just how powerful her senses had become. All of which brought her to the sounds ringing about in her head like some kind of brass band. Alexa had been working on a method to minimize the effect of so many sounds so that she didn’t drive herself crazy, by sorting each noise, and then focusing on the quieter ones. But her most recent experience had broken down her method of coping.

She figured that before she attempted to open her eyes again, she’d sort out the noise pollution wracking her brain. With that done, she slowly, carefully opened her eyes, and was met with beautiful sunny sky that was immediately eclipsed by a pair of feminine feet. If the blood-red nail polish was anything to go by, accompanied by a pair of well-worn jeans with a ragged hole in one knee, and she must have put them quickly because they were still unbuttoned, allowing for a glimpse at smoothly, tanned skin.

Alexa continued her perusal up, revealing more tanned skin, the contracting stomach brought out the clearly delineated six-pack of a muscled abdomen, and a cute bellybutton. Up until she came to the heaving, full, almost heavy breasts encased in a lacy black bra, that almost made her palms tingle at the thought of cupping them. Up until her eyes swept along, strong, toned, shoulders with strands of caramel and mahogany-colored hair lay tangled against more gleaming tanned skin. She continued up to the elegant throat that called to her to nibble, until she came to a face that made her think of silk sheets and whiskey. Below a cute button nose, she came to another potent feature; full lips with a slight cleft in her bottom one to match the slight cleft in her chin. whiskey. However, it was those intense, glowing, bedroom-deep, brownish-gold, with hints of red or copper eyes staring down at her that really began to reel her in.

Yet. when her eyes took a quick detour down those muscular arms until she came to what should have been hands but were now slightly…hairy(?) with claw-like fingers, with blackened nails that were long and lethal, that sent her startled eyes back into the stranger that was practically straddling her body. With sunlight capturing her in its rays, like some kind of feral, sun goddess, Lex could feel her alien DNA (and admittedly her human cells too) responding.

“You mind telling me what you’re doing lying naked on my property,” inquired the husky tones of the woman?

Alexa became startled even more once the question registered in her brain, quickly realizing that her skin felt sensitive because the clothes she had been wearing had disappeared. Quickly she sat up only to groan, while bringing her hand to her brow as images started to swim before her eyes, and the low-level throb once again reached a crescendo-level.

“Fuck!” she hoarsely groaned.

The woman quickly knelt, tentatively reaching out a now normal hand towards her shoulder. “Whoa, easy there champ. Now either you had a wild night on the town or,” she delicately sniffed the air, “or it was something else. And in this town; something else tends to happen a lot.”

Lex breathed heavily, a lock of wavy brown hair fell into her face, causing her to reach up to sweep it behind her ear as she returned her attention to the woman. “Actually, at this point you probably know more than me.” 

She watched as the woman looked around for a moment, her eyes not missing anything, before locking eyes back on Lex’s, but not before she did her own slow perusal of her body. “While I like a hot bod, especially one like yours, as much as the next person, don’t you think some clothes would be a good idea?” She finished her question with a slight smirk.

“Ha-ha. Of course, I do. I usually don’t make it a habit of running around naked, much less wake up naked in a,” this time she looked around, not recognizing anything familiar before continuing on, “strange place.”

In the meantime, Alexa’s body involuntarily reacted to the woman’s perusal. With her Indiana Jones’ lifestyle, she knew she had a great body and with her new… upgrade, those attributes seemed accentuated. Right now that… alien entity had taken notice of the woman and… It liked her. It also recognized a fellow predator and the instinct to test the stranger was growing stronger, which might explain why she remained unabashed over her nudity.

“But if you’re gonna oogle the goods, the least you can do is tell me where the hell I am. And a name would be nice too.” Her comment was met with a chuckle that seemed to resonate along her skin, raising goosebumps in its wake.

A creeping thought made her wonder why she wasn’t furiously blushing or frantically trying to cover up her body. However, lying supine with the woman almost kneeling over her, reminded her of her position of vulnerability.

“Feisty. I like that. And you’re on my property or I should say my… family’s property. And the name’s Faith.” she shifted to the side of Alexa’s torso onto one knee.

“My name is Alexa. Dr. Alexa Woods, but everyone calls me Lex, and the last thing I remember was being chased by some goons across the roofs of Lower Manhattan.” This time she slowly and carefully tried to sit up, contracting her own set of abdominal muscles.

Finally, leaning on one hand, the breeze caressing her nipples, causing the chocolate nubs to tighten, she watched as Faith’s beautiful eyes shifted down to stare at them, making them tighten even more.

“Well you’re a long way from home ‘Dorothy.’ In fact, you’re in St. Louis.” Faith swept her arm behind her to indicate the large Victorian home. “This is my home. Why don’t we get you inside, get you some clothes?” Faith saw her wincing at some invisible ache. “And maybe some aspirin.”

Meanwhile, Faith was trying to dampen her… arousal. Both her Slayer and Hound liked this woman. She had an intriguing scent and gorgeous body. She wanted to see if her café au lait skin felt as silky as it looked. Plus, there was  _something_ … else about her.  _Something_ not completely human; particularly when Faith saw something dark shift through Alexa’s eyes. But it was her scent, no matter how… intoxicating, which was the most telling. It was…  _off_. It didn’t ‘smell’ human or preternatural. Yet the more she inhaled, the more it seemed to be awakening her lust. A lust she thought was becoming more reserved for a red-headed Witch. However, there was no doubt, the visual of one Dr. Alexa Woods, was very striking.

Lush, dark, wavy hair, lay strewn about her shoulders and down her back, and her almond-shaped chocolate-colored eyes, surrounded by thick lashes, capped by full, shapely lips, made Faith want to throw Alexa over her shoulder, march her up to her room, and have her naughty way with her. With the way Alexa was trying to discreetly look at her, she may not be as opposed to the idea.

“St. Louis?! Missouri?!! How the he--?! Wh-… wait a minute, I have NO idea how I got here.”  Running a hand through her hair, trying to ward off another round of throbbing in her head, she tried to wrack her brain over this latest turn of events.

Not to mention… she was noticing other things. The unusual heat steaming from Faith’s skin, tickling the tiny hairs on her own skin, called upon everything she had to not shift uncomfortably. Faith’s voice seemingly flowing over her erogenous zones, her skin, even her pores, washing gently through her scalp, seemed to coat her body in potent pheromones. It was a singular experience, one that seemed to incite her Alien's instincts.

An arched well-manicured, dark eyebrow, and saucy grin, clued Lex in that Faith knew the impact she was having on her. Faith reached out her hand to help Alexa up. “Listen Jinx, let’s get you inside and then we can try to figure out how you landed in my backyard.”

“Jinx? Really? You  _do_  know my name is Lex, Alexa if you must, even comes with the title; Doctor.” Alexa hesitated a moment before lifting her hand towards Faith’s until it was clasped in a warm, warrior-roughened hand.

Suddenly icy-hot tingles race up her arm, up over her shoulder, to sweep down her back, and curl around her spine like a lazy cat. Lex swallowed the gasp that reactively crawled up her throat, her eyes immediately found Faith’s to see if she had a similar reaction. What she saw sent the throb in her head down her torso to settle in her lower regions.

Faith’s eyes had darkened to a swirling mixture of brown, gold, and dark-red, and hooded locked onto Lex’s. She’d become still, as if she were standing in the eye of a storm, a predator right before it pounced, and Lex is the prey. Her ‘Alien’ wasn’t sure if It liked that; It wanted to jerk the woman’s body onto hers. Instead she growled, having learned this ability while fighting Daniel’s goons. What she didn’t know what that her eyes went completely onyx, with no hint of iris, it was if a completely black orb had replaced her human eye.

Then Faith effortlessly jerked her upright into her arms, holding her tight, their faces inches from each other, puffs of breaths dashing against each other’s lips. One of Faith’s hands clasped tight along Alexa’s lower-back, while the other lied against her upper-back, in between her shoulders, her fingers tangled around Alexa’s wavy locks. But Alexa’s ‘Alien’ didn’t want to make the chase easy for Faith, especially with some kind of… creature, canine-like, perhaps wolf, staring out of her new friend’s face. It was almost like the image was superimposed on the woman’s face, but every instinct she had told her that this… image was a part of Faith, no it was Faith.

“What are you?” she whispered, as her hands reflexively clutched Faith’s strong shoulders.

Faith began nuzzling her nose along Lex’s nose and cheek, while her lips glanced across Lex’s, making them tingle in response. “Are you sure you wanna know?”

Unknowingly purring, Faith tugged her closer, shifting her smooth muscular thigh in between Lex’s naked ones, and she moved her hand on Lex’s lower back down until she cupped a well-formed cheek, eliciting a whimper from Lex. Judging by the way her bottom fit so perfectly into her palm, Lex had the makings of a great ass. Faith wondering why she was… moving this so fast, an instinct she usually felt after a hard slay, became stronger. Usually she’d throw in a couple of drinks before she seduced someone, and she certainly wouldn’t be attempting it in the backyard of her Pack’s home, especially with Safiya no doubt peering out of the kitchen window. But this woman called to her Beast and her Slayer, provoking her mating instincts.

However, when Lex sifted her long fingers through Faith’s hair, she suddenly tightened her grip, jerked Faith’s head back, exposing her throat to her heated breath. A warm, slightly sandpapery tongue gave a long, languorous lick up Faith’s heated skin before a hint of strong teeth tugged on a bit of flesh, eliciting a sharp heat of want between the Slayer-Hound’s legs. Lex’s teeth immediately began nibbling, suckling along the beautiful neck, until she came to the edge of Faith’s jaw. She planned to continue to until she came to a mouth that Alexa believed was made for sinning. But she was immediately halted when Faith tangled her own fingers in Lex’s thick, dark waves sifted further until she suddenly tightened fingers against Lex’s scalp, and then firmly tilted Lex’s head until Faith’s lips crushed against Alexa’s.

Hungrily, Faith slanted her mouth, her tongue swiping first Lex’s top lip before curling, suckling around her bottom lip, until Lex’s mouth opened with a whimper. Taking advantage, Faith plundered her mouth, firmly, taking back control. Rubbing along the roof, then once again curling around Lex’s tongue, and then sucking on the wet muscle, feeling Lex’s body shuddering in response, her fingers had slipped from Faith’s hair to dig into the Slayer’s shoulders, in response to the sensations tearing through her body.

Finally, the need to breathe broke them apart, even though the urge to get as close as possible by wanting any and all clothes gone, needing to feel skin upon skin, became urgent. Hooded glowing eyes met almost opaque, depthless, completely onyx-colored eyes, both recognizing Power in the other. Lex’s Alien-host also recognized a strong warrior, something feral, and an Alpha.  But was this Alpha worthy of a superior species as the Predator?

Faith on the other hand, was fighting both the Slayer and her Hound over their desire for her engage her mating instincts. They (the Hound - Andraste and the Slayer- Sineya) had decided that Alexa was a worthy candidate, a warrior, unidentified, but strong, and whatever Lex was, she was intoxicating. In addition, Faith wasn’t just an Alpha she was a rare  ** _Shuhan_** , and it was Safiya’s belief that she was even more than that. According to the legends, a powerful  ** _Shuhan_** would embody the spiritual Hellhounds of the  _Old Ones_ , almost god-like, in order to save their kind from extinction. Faith’s unexpected vision quest strongly supported this belief.  In a few days other Were-Hounds and Caretakers would arrive to carry out the  ** _Naqua_** ; a formal rite of ascension, which would supposedly give light to Faith’s destiny within The Circle.

Faith tried not to think about how huge that all sounded, she still wasn’t convinced that she was worthy to lead, but she’d be damned if anymore of her ‘people’ would die because she didn’t do what she could to protect them. All of this quickly ran through Faith’s mind as she took in the very tantalizing Alexa; she became aware of naked breasts crushed against her bra-clad ones. She could feel Lex’s hardened nubs rubbing against hers, through the lace of her bra, occasionally finding breaks in the lace to glance against Faith’s skin in a way that made Faith want to tear off her bra to feel them brush against her breasts, or firmly grind into her own turgid nipples.

However, their tongues were once again too busy mapping out the inside of each other’s mouths. Tongues darted from inside one heated cavern into the other, swirling wet muscles occasionally twined around each other. The bodies began to press and grind, sweat stained their skin as muscular, feminine limbs melded together like warm taffy in the sun. But the sound of a screen door screeching open and then slamming shut, broke the escalating sensual moment. Faith snarled like an animal that just had its food removed, Lex tore her mouth away as someone interrupted their moment.

“If you’re planning on having your way with our guest, the least you could do is do is use the discretion of your bedroom.” A lilting, accented, amused voice came from behind them. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BEWARE - Lots of nakedness up ahead. DON'T READ AT WORK!!!

Scenting the air, Faith realized it was Safiya. Reluctantly stepping away from Alexa, feeling her ears heat up as she took in Safiya’s ever-serene expression laced with amusement, Faith tried to curb her instincts to do just that. However, the sudden, loud, growl echoing from Alexa’s stomach, quickly reminded Faith of the more immediate concerns regarding their guest: clothes and definitely food.

“Ah…  Safiya, this is Alexa. Alexa this is Safiya our Shamaness.” She paused trying to think of a way to explain her presence. Still keeping her arm around Alexa, holding her close; to hide the _goods_ , but mostly because she smells and feels so good against Faith’s skin. “Looks like she’s droppin’ in for a few days.”

Recalling her days as an archeologist, a Shamaness  is someone to be revered… and feared in some cultures. Noticing the steadying, penetrating, look from the almost glowing, golden eyes, Alexa thought that Safiya was probably a little bit of both; someone to be revered and feared. Faith ushered  her in the house as Safiya held open the screen-door, into the cool exterior of dark wood, big windows, beautifully polished, hard-wood floors, a Berber carpet with a dark cherry-wood coffee table, the smells of various occupants, particularly Faith lingered in the air. Faith led her up one side of two wooden staircases that lined either side of the large entry-way, down more hard-wood floors, with beautiful dark-wood, until they came to a set of French-doors, which opened up into a huge master bedroom, complete with an impressive four-poster, unmade, bed.

Along with an occasional pair of jeans, books on a night-stand, an opened comic book, at the foot of her bed, a plum-colored bra, a pair of boots sitting near another opened door, and an empty beer bottle sitting on a beautiful, huge, decorative, desk, mixed in with the other elements of a lived in space.

“Sorry about the mess. I wasn’t expectin’ company.” She quickly gathered up some of her clothes and walked over to her bathroom to stuff them into a covered laundry wicker basket. “Umm, just make yourself comfortable. Feel free to use the bathroom and I’ll set you up with some clothes.”

She became captivated at the shifting muscles, clenching muscular ass, and gleaming bronzed- café au lait skin. When Alexa stepped close to her again, one hand lifted to rest on Faith’s chest, her dark wavy hair strewn sexily around her shoulders, her bee-stung, swollen lips, begging to be nibbled on again, Faith shook her head as if to clear it. 

She pointed to something in her bathroom. “There’s towels and washcloths already in there, plus a robe. Help yourself.” Not being able to help herself, she leaned in for quick, yet thorough kiss, before firmly stepping away, ignoring the mock pout from her guest, and heading towards the door. “I’m gonna round us up something to eat.” She smirked roguishly, her dimples standing out, before giving a saucy wink. “You’re gonna need it.” and with that she stepped out of the room.

***

Alexa couldn’t remember the last time she reveled in a hot shower like she was now. Well except for her very first, warm, shower immediately following Bouvetøya Island. That one was practically orgasmic. Although from the sexual buzz still flowing through her veins, compliments of Faith, she felt like she could easily orgasm right now, with little to no direct stimulation. Inside she could feel her pussy walls still shuddering and her clit still felt huge and throbbing. But for some reason she didn’t want to cum by her own hand, she wanted Faith to make her cum, and hard. She wanted to smear the woman in her scent, her juices, even her sweat.

Reaching up with the tip of her tongue, she touched her newly elongated fangs; sharp and dangerous, almost as dangerous as the ones she peeped in Faith’s and Safiya’s mouth. She had wanted to use her teeth, to bite down, to _Mark_ Faith… it was  very unlike Alexa. She’d always conducted her love affairs fairly with a bit of detachment, she wanted no complications because her work often took her to unknown destinations for months at a time, and mostly because she never found anyone close to making it worth the effort. However, she tended to be fairly conservative in picking lovers; her friend Sebastian, used to make fun of her lack of love life… well he did until he died at Bouvetøya Island.

Sighing she moved onto more pleasant thoughts. Faith… her… _Alien_ really liked her and it wondered if Faith would make a good adversary for the Hunt. But then inserting her more human consciousness, she thought that Faith would be a worthy ally instead. Running a soapy hand along her lean and muscled stomach, into the nest of curls, sweeping around her still quivering nub, before gently massaging soap and water into her thighs, she wondered again how and why fate literally brought her to this time, place, and woman. 


	17. Chapter 17

“Well, I must say Slayer, that you do not make things dull. While I would caution you from mixing your energies before the ** _Naqua_** ceremony, I can feel that you might not be able to wait.” Safiya was busy helping Faith put together huge sandwiches, loaded with roast beef, turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce, with a spritz of honey mustard, on thick cut, homemade sourdough bread. It turns out that Miko loves to cook, and loved baking even more; hence the homemade bread, which she now makes almost every morning. Miko and the rest were out getting supplies for the ceremony and of course more food. Thank the Goddess that The Circle sent money, because it took a lot of food feeding Were-Hounds, and even more for a Slayer-Were-Hound.

Shuffling her feet, hoping to avoid talking about, the rather weird, slightly embarrassing situation –  but only because Safiya had begun to feel almost like… a maternal-figure, Faith mumbled a response. “Honestly, I don’t know what the hell is happenin’? One minute I feel and hear something shift the,” she waved her hand in front of her, “air, before smelling something weird comin’ from the back-yard.”

Focusing on cutting the sandwiches, then taking a sip from her Dr. Pepper, she continued. “Then I see this fine-ass woman lying, naked, in the sun, on the ground. Then the next thing I know I’m clutchin’ on to her naked bits.” Faith marveled at the strange day, thinking about her guest, especially on the ‘feel’ of her.

 _What was she_ , wondered Faith?

“She smells… different. Human… but not. Does that make even an ounce of sense?” asked Faith.

“She is strong. But she does not know **_what_** or **_who_** she is anymore. But make no mistake: she is a predator,” intoned Safiya.

Rolling her eyes, Faith carefully staked all the sandwiches, a couple slices of strawberry-rhubarb pie, a bag of chips, and six-pack of Dr. Pepper, dangled from a finger. “Listen Witchy-Woman, “grinning when Safiya did an impressive eye-roll of her own, “I’ve been around predators all my life and the only rule of o’ the land is that there’s **always** a bigger, badder, predator. She’s met hers today.” And with that she began her trek back to her guest.

Safiya shook her head, chuckling, watching her walk away, as she thought yet again, how… fortunate she was to of found her way into Faith’s life. It’s never been a dull moment and everyday Faith kept proving how worthy she was of being a **_Celestial-Shuhan_**. The Elders should be here the day after tomorrow so that they could begin the **_Naqua_** ceremony; officially inducting Faith and Miko into The Circle, and even more important, to determine if Faith truly is their **_Shuhan_**.

It didn’t stop Safiya from worrying about the world Faith came from and if that world would drag her back to it. Safiya was a powerful Shamaness, she could feel echoes of magic and the spirit-world long after it was expended, like notes from a song hanging onto the air, long after a song has finished playing. It was why the woman with the red hair concerned her. she leaked a powerful magical echo, almost as impressive as Safiya’s, this Sorceress from Faith’s world, had been attempting to breach a passageway between both worlds, using something Safiya could only detect via a unnamed of shimmering greenish essence.

Safiya had already contacted The Circle’s researchers in an attempt to gather more information before she approached Faith. In the meantime, she will reinforce the magical barriers around their home, especially before the **_Naqua_** , it wouldn’t do to have additional uninvited guests appearing. Particularly ones that might mean Faith and her Pack harm. And she’ll set up magical traps; in case this… Sorceress found her way to St. Louis; she’d be spotted and frozen until Safiya could ascertain that she wasn’t a threat to their Pack.

Safiya figured that this would be a good time begin the final preparations for the **_Naqua_** and for receiving impending guests, since Faith would be busy _settling_ their guest in.


	18. Chapter 18

Her name is Dr. Alexa Woods and she was feeling a little bit like ‘Alice’ these days. She stood looking onto the huge, expansive backyard; the same one she ‘dropped into’ more than a month ago. Alexa watched as Faith ‘playfully’ swatted at Miko, as they rambunctiously sparred, played for a bit, and then sparred some more. Alexa discovered that Were-Hounds had an abundance of energy, particularly the younger one. This activity was one of the many ways to expend that energy.

In another life, Alexa would have already been attempting to set-up a research project, featuring this amazing… species, this unusual ‘family.’ And family they were; from Safiya the maternal figure over all of them, to Isis the calm and collected favorite aunt, or Miko the beloved younger sister. At the crest of this hierarchy was Faith. Hot-tempered, loyal, brash – although the heavy responsibility of being essentially the ‘savior’ of the Were-Hound species was making it harder for Faith be her usual ‘hit first, ask questions later’ routine.  As for her relationship with Faith, it was complicated to say the least.

Alexa was no longer just…human. She was something more. Something not of this earth. Yet, her… Alien was just as attracted to Faith as her human side. Odd, she knew, but that was the best way to describe the unique situation. It made her desperately wish that she was back in her world, so that she could access a few academic and research colleagues of hers. The most important question of all was: if she allowed Faith to Claim her, how would that merging of DNA impact her? Would she be this awful hybrid, uncontrollable, too… alien. Or would her human DNA off-set the alien DNA to develop something harmonious? And then was it even possible to ‘hold’ a 3rd DNA strand, which is what would happen if Faith Claims her.

It didn’t stop the _need_ , the desperate _want_ , she had for _Faith_. The usual methods of dealing with the problem; her fingers pulling and tugging on hardened nipples, while her other hand traced themselves through the wet pool of want that welled up between her legs, spilling onto her thighs. By the time she began plucking and kneading the knot of nerves quivering atop of her sex, the need had spiked so hard, the empathetic link to Faith pulsed so sharply, that Alexa knew that Faith could feel it when she came.  Once Faith had crashed into her room, eyes glowing hotly with flames and arousal, her head tipped up slightly as her nostrils flared to take in her heated scent Faith’s feminine, yet muscularly rigid body with quivering need, as she watched Alexa’s fingers work through her orgasm.

And because she could feel Faith’s answering need, her satiation rarely laid content. The want would begin spiking all over again, yet a bit harder, and deeper. It was a maddening cycle, one which sent her into enough of a frenzy that she’d find herself sparring with either Masud or one of the newer members of their growing Pack. Not to mention, it usually took Faith a couple days to come down from the phenomenon, until finally, Safiya stepped in and declared that either Faith Claimed Alexa or permanently send her away. Alexa stomach dropped like she was on a rollercoaster, racing at breakneck speed, down that first arc.

But Faith remained resistant: to both sending Alexa away and to Claiming her. Alexa knew why. In some of their shared empathic episodes occasionally she’d feel a deep and abiding emotion for another woman. Deep as in it had been there long enough that it had settled in a like an old, yet intense friend. The first time this had happened, it was all Alexa could do to not storm to wherever Faith was and demand to know who this person was, like some intensely jealous wife. That had never been a character trait of Alexa. Through all of this her Alien of her was… curiously, even suspiciously, quiet. All in all, Alexa’s personality was fraught with craziness that seemed to multiply on a weekly basis, leaving her rather unsettled most of the time. Alexa realized that something needed to change or her… humanness would become weaker.

Following that realization was a long conversation with Safiya and Faith, she told them everything. They knew she was possessed abilities beyond human capabilities. Plus Alexa she wanted to truly become a Pack member and she wanted to be Claimed. Again Faith initially protested, but when Alexa calmly told her that she’d be willing to share her, but that she felt certain that they were… ** _more_** to each other than a regular Pack member or just friends. Safiya chimed in and reminded Faith of her spiritual journey with the _Old Ones_ , and their subsequent prophetic predictions about Faith’s life; including more than one Mate.

After that Faith attempted to find _perspective_ , was the word she used, until she finally marched right up to Alexa who’d been flipping pancakes for Miko and her, firmly grabbed her shoulder, spun her around, and then laid a hot and possessive kiss on her lips. Apparently this was her way of stating her intentions. Safiya immediately began researching and consulting with the Circle. When little turned up, they decided that since the Elders blessed the Claiming that they’d have to take a leap of faith. Hence the reason, she currently was nervously waiting for Faith in the Slayer-Hound’s room.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEWARE! Lots of Nakedness Ahead! DON'T READ AT WORK!!!

Faith slid into the room, sniffed the scent of Alexa, steam, and her body-soap that smelled of sandalwood and jasmine. Setting food down on her dresser, she watched as the bathroom door opened, steam pouring out in billowing curls of white smoke. Alexa languidly flowed into the room, bronze skin gleaming with moisture, dark, wet hair lying in curls along her back and shoulders, wrapped in a huge white bath towel. Faith involuntarily ran her eyes down the enticing vision and wondered how she got lucky enough to have Alexa essentially drop into her lap.

Leaning against the door-frame, Alexa steadily watched Faith, a tiny curl of her lips indicating lazy amusement. “You made it. I was hoping you’d keep me company while I took my bath.”

 She slowly glided towards Faith, her tantalizing scent wafting in the air; droplets of water glistening on her skin. Alexa briefly looked at the food before returning her attention to Faith. She stepped close, brushing up against Faith’s body, one arm holding the towel in place as she curled the other around Faith’s neck. Instinctively Faith leaned down to nuzzle along Alexa’s neck, while one arm curled around Alexa’s waist, holding her damp body even closer, inhaling her scent even more.

“I brought some food, but I’m not sure we’re gonna be getting to it just yet,” Faith huskily rasped.

Alexa began peppering suckling kisses along Faith’s jaw, before reaching her ear, and then swirling her tongue around the whorls. “I think I’m hungry for something a little different, aren’t you?”  

“Indeed,” she purred.

However, Alexa was now a part of an ancient race of hunters, Predators, and for one to be added to their Pride, they had to prove themselves worthy. Suddenly she stepped back, just out-of-arms length.  “However, the hunt has just begun.”

Before Faith could register what that meant, Alexa began to back up even more. Alexa’s Alien is a Predator, centuries upon centuries have been dedicated towards the Great Hunt. It was ingrained in them and therefore, it was now ingrained in Alexa’s DNA. It also meant that they rarely played submissive unless a more worthy adversary proved their dominance. Mating was no different.

Inhaling Faith’s delicious scent, the Slayer, the Hound, and the woman was a delectable feast for Alexa’s senses. But as much as she wanted to revel, to bathe in her essence, to feel Faith’s warm skin slide against hers, to feel those supple lips suckle, kiss, even Mark her body, her Alien still wanted to ensure that Faith was worthy. So instead of simply allowing her towel to fall to the floor and twining herself around Faith’s body, her lidded gaze stared at the Slayer-Hound; testing her, challenging her, provoking Faith into reacting, the dance between two dominants, to determine the Alpha Mate, notched higher.

Faith’s eyes widened followed by an immediate narrowing of her gorgeous flame-colored eyes, indicated that Faith received the message.  The Were-Hound slowly toed her sneakers off and unbuttoned her jeans, all without taking her eyes off of Alexa, before she slowly started to stalk Alexa. But Alexa didn’t wait for her to reach her, she slowly moved back, slightly out-of-reach of Faith. A growl echoed around the room, from deep within Faith’s chest, letting Alexa know that the ‘hunt’ was officially on. Along with this realization, was a curling heat low within her stomach that had been simmering, swelling, within her center for days.

Her towel slipped, allowing her erect nipples to peak out. Faith’s nostrils flared, inhaling Alexa’s scent as her eyes which had been locked with Alexa’s eyes, dropped, zeroing in on the aching nubs, Faith’s mouth opened slightly; a hint of dangerous teeth, as if she was readying to suddenly bite. It didn’t alarm Alexa; it only served to arouse her even more.  Alexa hungrily watched as Faith’s hand clenched into fists, knuckles turning white in an effort to tug her into Faith’s body.  Just when Faith got close enough to lift her hand to touch her, Alexa quickly danced just beyond her fingertips. Faith growled again—teeth gleaming and suddenly sharp incisors, Alexa growled back: she was letting Faith know that if she wanted her, she had to catch her.

When it happened a few more times, Faith paused, her head doubled-down, her stance widened, knees bent slightly, chest heaving, as Alexa realized that she had figuratively and literally painted herself into a corner, she prepared to “defend” herself. Her towel had fallen away long-ago, leaving her skin naked and now gleaming with perspiration, her chest heaving in arousal and sexual-tension, hair wildly strewn about her shoulders, smelling of leaking juices and woman. She had no idea how very tempting she was, especially as she continued to resist Faith’s growing need. But Faith was done chasing her, it was time to _Claim_ what was hers. 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEWARE! Lots of Nakedness Ahead. DON'T READ AT WORK!!!

Reaching out with tendrils of energy, Faith was suddenly wanting… no ** _needing_** to _Claim_ Alexa. She’s known her for a little over a month, so she had to stifle the urge to simply ravish her, especially after being taunted and teased for several moments. It was all Faith could do to not simply pounce on Alexa, throw her on the bed, and take her. Her body, her Slayer and Hound, were practically begging she do just that. But she understood that this was part of some kind of Mating ritual through Alexa’s Predator. She didn’t know why she knew that, but she did, and frankly it was the only thing saving Alexa from Faith not immediately asserting her dominance over her.

The moment when Alexa lost her towel leaving her gleaming, milk-chocolate, slightly sweating skin, sleek muscles standing in relief to Faith’s hungry eyes, while she dashed or ducked just beyond Faith’s fingers, frustrating Faith to no end, there was also something else happening. As Faith’s temper got hotter, as the challenge went on, the growing need began to consume Faith. Everything throughout her body began to crave Alexa underneath her, begging for  her touch, her Claim; from her skin, or her rigid nipples chafing against her top, to her weeping cunt snuggly riding the seams of her jeans.

Speaking of clothing, it was way past time to lose hers; they suddenly felt too tight, too constricting, and she could swear that they were hindering her ability to give chase to Alexa. Without taking her eyes from her prey, Faith began to slowly remove her clothing, as she recognized that her Slayer and her Hound were also enjoying the hunt. A different sort of hunt than their usual kind, but one just the same.

Nevertheless, the Slayer-Hound and the woman were reaching the end of their patience. So when Alexa attempted to slip by her to run to the opposite end of the room, Faith had had enough. Using her newly honed gifts, she smoothly and quickly turned and quicker than even most beings could see, her warm, calloused hand grasped Alexa’s wrist, immediately stopping her flight. Faith quickly brought Alexa’s body against hers, her back to Faith’s front, as she wound both arms around Alexa’s squirming and heaving body.

When Alexa bent her slightly bent her knees as if she were attempting to heave her body from Faith’s arms, Faith left one steely arm wrapped around Alexa’s waist while her other quickly sifted her fingers through Alexa’s wetly-tangled hair, to gain purchase, holding her head steady. She gently but firmly jerked her head slightly back and to the side, exposing one tantalizing side of Alexa’s neck to Faith’s lowered lips.

“Alexa!” Alexa continued to squirm, trying to break Faith’s hold, continuing to taunt the Slayer-Hound. Faith tried to get her attention again.

“Alexa!” Her husky voice, louder, closer to Alexa’s ear, finally got Alexa’s attention, as Faith tried to stem the rising tide of hot want threatening to break her control, as her soon-to-be-lover’s body writhed and rubbed against hers. “That’s enough!”

At that point, Faith closed her lips onto Alexa’s pulse-point, her teeth elongating, and then gently bit down, hot, delicious, blood welled in Faith’s mouth.  And like some kind of switch that’d been thrown Alexa immediately stilled, a breathy moan echoed out from her lips, her body sunk submissively into Faith’s body. She had been truly caught. With every pull of her blood into Faith’s mouth, an echoing throb was felt throughout her body, rhythmically tensing her abdominal muscles, pulsated deep inside her weeping hole, and her clit.

Alexa her eyes closed, her body completely submissive to the Slayer-Hound, could feel something moving inside her; like it’d been lying in wait to be awakened. It’s ugly, alien visage, was also fierce, and intimidating, yet strong warrior-blood sung through its veins, and now Alexa’s veins. But now another would be taking up metaphysical-residence: the Were-Hound. Alexa’s Alien recognized her dominant and superior warrior, a worthy, strong Mate.  A barrier had been lowered allowing Faith’s Slayer-Hound to step through. But it wasn’t finished.

Finally, Faith’s teeth slid from Alexa’s neck, her tongue gently lapping up the trickling blood. Faith took a moment to close her eyes, to center herself the way Giles taught her so long ago. When she felt a hot tongue dip into her ear, it caused Faith to shudder as heat washed over her skin, as Alexa turned in her arms.

Warm hands slid up her torso leaving goosebumps in their wake, until they cupped Faith’s heaving breasts, thumbs brushing back and forth over her hardened, aching nipples. Faith opened her eyes and saw the most curious thing. An orange-gold glow enveloped Alexa. But it didn’t alarm Faith, in fact it seemed to awaken something almost visceral and intense and at the same time… weirdly protective. Faith wanted to curl up against that naked skin while at the same time she wanted to press her onto the bed, hold her wrists in one hand, while sliding her fingers of her other hand into Alexa’s wet, hot, glorious-smelling cunt.

Faith followed at least one instinct. Snaking a hand up Alexa’s back, into the dark curls strewn wetly around her shoulders and back, allowed Faith to once again crush her lips against Alexa’s. Moaning lushly into Alexa’s mouth, as they stroked their tongues along the other’s, playing a game of dominance, sinuously wrapping the muscles around each other, before Alexa gave into Faith, allowing her to stroke deep inside Alexa’s mouth.

Feeling the need to breathe after several moments, Faith lifted her head. “Are you sure?” When she spoke her voice was husky with a hint of a growl. “Are you sure? Because once you give the go-ahead, there’s no lettin’ go; you’ll belong with the Pack, you’ll belong to me. There ain’t no goin’ back. ”

 The question seemed innocuous enough, but they both knew it was not. Regardless of the initial Claiming Bite, this question would cement their ties. It carried weight, consequences, and a sense of… destiny. And honestly, both women have had little opportunity to ever connect with someone on a primitive, forever, kind of way. A flash of a red-head coursed through Faith’s mind, staying, taking shape. She saw her with her head lying on her hands that were placed on a book in front of her. It looked as if she fallen asleep while reading something. Suddenly Willow lifted her head, eyes staring around the room, as if she sensed something was there. Seeing those beautiful green eyes, caused Faith’s stomach to clench in added want and tension… and longing.  

With a growl, Faith was brought back to present, but still felt as if Willow was still there, Faith walked Alexa back towards her bed, pressing another deep kiss onto her lips as she slowly pressed Alexa down on the bed. Faith continued to plunder her mouth, enjoying Alexa’s  taste mingled in with her delicious blood, and then finally lifted her lips to suckle along her jaw, once again laving her Claiming Bite. “I can smell you and I can’t wait to taste more of you. I can’t wait to wrap my lips around your clit. Do you want that too?”

Faith could feel Alexa’s wetness smearing along her skin, along with her delicious scent of arousal, but she wanted to hear her ask for it. It turned her on. Suckling deeply at a patch of smooth skin near her ear, her tongue hotly traced the whorls of flesh along her ear, as her hips thrusted and rotated against Alexa’s mound. She tried to still her very urgent, overdue, need to cum, her hips almost involuntarily undulating, trying to relieve the fierce ache from between her legs.

Sitting up, her body straddled Alexa, smearing her cum along Alexa’s torso Faith stared at the writhing woman on the bed, their eyes locked; hers flamey, while hers were glowing onyx, no hint of the irises. Alexa ran her eyes over every inch of the Slayer-Hound, tried to quell the urge to growl in want, but did so anyways. Then Faith slid back, bent back over Alexa’s body, sniffing along her wet curls, ignoring the heated flesh begging for her direct attention, before dipping her tongue into Alexa’s bellybutton, a long lick up Alexa’s torso, until Faith came to the underside of heaving breasts, causing Alexa to dig her fingers into the bed.

Faith slid her hands up Alexa’s torso, cupping the lush breasts, nipples swollen and firm begging for a firmer touch, or a hard suckle. Luckily Faith was very accommodating and very hungry. It had been so long. Swirling a tongue around Alexa’s nipple, then lashing the tip back and forth, until Faith closed her lips around it to suckle it hard. Using her razor-sharp teeth to lightly nibble, pulling on the tip, a cry issuing forth from Alexa’s lips. Meanwhile Faith ran a hand along the curves of Alexa’s waist, then smoothed into the nest of moist curls. Alexa’s hips churned as Faith tugged on them, seeking alleviation to the growing need building inside her. Faith’s other hand was busy fondling, rolling and tugging Alexa’s other nipple, pulling up on it hard, making it wonderfully sore and sensitive, priming it for Faith’s mouth, seemingly igniting the pulsations on Alexa’s clit, making it swell even more.

“Faith, please!”

Swirling one last time, before nibbling her way across the generous slope of Alexa’s breast, to the valley in between, followed by a long, languorous wipe of her tongue, more nibbling until her mouth joined her other fingers. Faith ignored her own undulating hips; she’d probably be astounded by the girlcum dribbling out of her pulsating center, to splatter and smear along Alexa’s quivering thighs. At the same time as Faith was kissing, suckling, even lightly biting the turgid, purpulish-brown nipple, she was scenting Alexa. Alexa’s scent was… changing, becoming more earthy and tangy, indicated how close she was to orgasm. Underneath the scent was something else, something familiar, something Hound.

The feel of Alexa’s fingers digging into her shoulders, her nails deliciously stinging against Faith’s skin as they dug in every time Faith pulled on her nipple, as her other fingers slicked through swollen, wet folds, almost pinching the sensitive labial lips, before edging around Alexa’s grasping hole.

“Please Faith, I need… I need you to fuck me.” Alexa gasped, then cried out as Faith bit down harder on the sensitive nipple in her mouth. “I need you to…” Alexa was feeling something more than the ferocious arousal coursing through her veins.

A push of something beyond the need to cum. Instinctively, she knew that it was Faith that was the cause of the sensation, a sensation similar to what she’d felt earlier. A shiver ran down her spine when once again, Faith hotly mouthed the thick cord of skin at the juncture between her neck and shoulder, sniffing and licking the sweetly-sore bite mark, made her wonder if Faith could feel that ‘something’ too. The Claiming wasn’t finished; the initial Bite opened metaphysical shields, allowing Faith’s Beast and Slayer in. This Bite would complete the circle, connecting, essentially marrying them.

Alexa’s head snapped back, a deep moan escaping her lips, as a single finger penetrated her, sliding in thickly, her honey-walls grasping at the appendage as it pressed deep, and then curling at the end. Looking up, she realized that Faith was greedily watching her. Those oddly  gorgeous orangey-reddish eyes, seemed to be peering inside Alexa’s soul, enslaving her, even though Alexa wanted to thrash her head from side-to-side as Faith added another finger,  filling her, stuffing her nicely, her girlcum spilling out around those wonderful fingers. Faith was panting slightly, giving Alexa a view of gleaming white and dangerous canines.

Lifting one hand from Faith’s shoulder Alexa smoothed it up the Slayer-Hound’s neck, into Faith’s thick, dark hair, before pausing to cup the side of Faith’s jaw. Tenderly running her thumb along Faith’s delicious lower-lip, tinged with a hint of blood, to the tip of a sharp fang, and then minutely pressing, until one bead of blood welled up, all the while staring into Faith’s now glowing eyes. She smeared it along Faith’s lip, feeling the need to… provoke her into letting her cum, into finishing the Claim. Faith had teased Alexa just as much as Alexa had been taunting her. Of course, while this settled some things, it also complicated others.

Willow had nestled deep inside Faith, to the extent that she’d become involuntarily celibate. Until now. For some reason, that barrier instantly imploded the moment Alexa dropped into the Pack’s backyard. Instantly, she remembered the prophetic-like words from Pele, something about a _Guardian-Bond Mate_ , followed by the salient arguments from Safiya, that while yes, Willow as her _Blood-Bond Mate_ and Queen, Alexa was her _Guardian-Bond Mate_ ; Submissive only to Willow and Faith.  

Instinctively as Faith leaned down to swipe her tongue over the injured digit, with the initial bite, it was all Faith could do to not drink up every last drop. Alexa’s taste exploded all over her senses, almost stinging her tongue and throat like the finest alcohol, until it curled deep inside her stomach. she wanted more, Faith wanted to **_know_** her, to ingest her, to feel her cumming out of her pores; it was edgy, not soft, but… safe.

For a few moments, the arousal held steady under Alexa’s skin, before almost bubbling over, making it difficult to think. But she did realize that she no longer had anything to go back to. The Feds were looking for her, her parents were too busy attending Essence-Jazz concerts, bemoaning the fact that their daughter won’t settle down, take over her Father’s expedition business.  It also meant that this new life would keep them safe; the less they knew, the less danger they’d be in, as various elements may use them to get to her. In addition, her only loyal friend, Sebastian, was dead. And most importantly, since the experience of Bouvetøya Island, she no longer felt connected to her world, to… humans. Finding instant acceptance was intoxicating; there was even a sense of… rightness in Faith’s arms.

Unable to help herself, Faith leaned down again to brush her lips against Alexa’s swollen ones, before working her way along a delicate jaw. The need to complete the Claiming became more urgent. Mouthing the delicate skin, the suckling hard enough to leave reddish marks against the caramel-colored skin. Her teeth aching to gain purchase, bite down, particularly when she once again reached the juncture where shoulder meets neck, where the initial Claim sat steadily throbbing. Suckling even harder, blood trickling once again, she reveled in the grunt, followed by a deep moan from Alexa’s lips, riling Faith’s primal instincts even more.

However that sensation was instantly multiplied when Alexa tightened her fingers in Faith’s hair to sharply tug her head away. “You’re gonna need my answer,” she paused to bring Faith’s lips down to hers, not yet connecting, just heightening the intensity of the moment, “Yes. I’m yours.”

Alexa crushed their lips together once again. Faith allowed her Power to leak, bringing her Slayer-Hound to the forefront; primal instincts pushing past human reasoning, as Faith’s incisors lengthen, preparing for the Mating bite.

Faith swept her weapon-calloused palms down Alexa’s torso until they came to her smooth, silky thighs, and then moving down until they cupped along the sides to press them up and out, exposing Alexa’s swollen, wet, folds, and aching clit sitting atop of her mound quivering, while Alexa spread her bent knees out even further. As one hand caressed upwards until Faith once again began fingering Alexa’s protruding, wet labia, all the while hips undulated against each other, cries spilling from Alexa full, swollen, lips. Unbeknownst to Alexa, her own incisors began lengthening to about an inch past her bottom lip,  her eyes began bleeding to a glowing-blue, irises disappearing until they were a pin-point, outlined by a black ring. Her nails lengthened and turned black, digging into Faith’s shoulders deep enough to leave bloody crescents behind.

Searching, sniffing, until she found the place where she laid her Claim, Faith prepared to finish the ritual. Faith began lapping the area again, sensitizing the skin and nerves and the sweetly-sore bite mark even more, while her fingers began edging around the weeping, grasping hole that was practically begging to be filled. Full lips suckled hard until the skin began purpling and then grazing the area with her sharp teeth, elicited a gasping-cry. Faith almost lost herself in a frenzy of lust and craving. Meanwhile those sensations seemed to be coalescing in her sex, increasing the intensity of want, that it felt as if her clit had ballooned to bursting, standing atop her pussy so that it felt as if it was ten times its size, while her throbbing hole felt empty and desperate.

The growing need to cum she kept grinding her hips against Alexa’s, and then the back of her own fingers as they delicately traced Alexa’s sensitive and swollen folds, plucking her enlarged clit, before once plunging two fingers into Alexa’s wet hole, as she continued to grind her own quivering nub against Alexa’s. _Not enough, not nearly enough, but almost too much_ , Alexa mentally whined. Since she had Alexa spread open it made it easy to touch every inch of Alexa’s cunt, which worked beautifully as the sensations racing through Alexa’s sex were almost too much, yet not enough, that at times her wildly jerking hips were almost enough to launch Faith from her heaving body.

Luckily Faith was made of sterner stuff and it helped that Faith had Alexa positioned in such a way that it gave her little leverage to escape, as the Slayer-Hound practically had Alexa pinned with her body. It also made Alexa even more aroused – she’d never been one to simply submit, bare her throat, but that’s precisely what was happening, and she couldn’t seem to help herself, she didn’t want to – Faith had more than earned it. 

“Please Faith, for god’s sake…I need… please!” No longer being able to help herself, Faith growled and snagged an earlobe nearby, almost piercing it, as her two fingers pressed slowly inside, deeply, twisting, pressing, rubbing, her hole clenched down on the fingers, as the cum poured out.

“Yes! Fuck!” at that moment Faith slowly bit into the sensitive bite marks on Alexa’s shoulder until blood once again welled up on her tongue, exploding in unique flavors.

It was enough to send both of them into orgasm; Faith’s clit wildly fluttered against Alexa’s own engorged nub, while Faith’s fingers were corkscrewing themselves in and out against that rough patch of nerves clustered deep inside Alexa. Like some kind of overloaded energy core, the heat from the Power emanating from the two women on the bed could be felt around the property.  Various Pack members who felt the phenomena such as a few Submissives, flattened their ears against their heads in hope that whatever was happening wouldn’t involve them, as the icy-hot Power washed over them, almost causing them to involuntarily Shift. Others like Safiya simply smiled and shivered as the Power washed over her.

None of that mattered as the sensations cascaded, built, receded, than came back stronger than before, DNA, personal history, hopes and dreams washed through them in an instant as the molten lava-like sensation raced through their veins. The blood from the Mating Bite had slowed to a sluggish weep that Faith carefully and thoroughly swiped up with her tongue. The pleasure-pain sensation of Faith’s fingering her, while her tongue swiped and prodded at the wound on her shoulder, only seemed to extend the pulsating waves stealing through veins, layering against her skin, leaving goosebumps and sweat in their wake.

Finally when things began to simmer down, she attempted to bring her head forward from having whipped back as she orgasmed,  her head feeling thick yet light-headed, and the roaring in her ears wasn’t the blood rushing through her veins, instead it had been her deep scream echoing around the room. Faith was busy kissing, nipping, and suckling along her neck, until she reached Alexa’s lips. Gentle pants dusted against Alexa’s lips, she could smell the tinge of metallic blood with a hint of something darker, almost nutty. She moaned as Faith removed her fingers from her hyper-sensitive, still twitching sex, to caress and smooth up along her torso, until she was gently cupping Alexa’s breast.

Feeling an unusual tugging sensation, awakening her from her sluggish, post-coital Mating, Alexa slowly opened her eyes locking onto Faith’s glowing, flame-like ones. One hand gently cupped Alexa’s jaw when Faith gently brushed her lips against Alexa’s.

“Are you ok?” Faith’s voice was even raspier than usual, with a hint of a growl.

Along with the tugging sensation was the feeling of contentment and possessiveness, but also tenderness. And it wasn’t coming from Alexa. She widened her eyes when she realized those feelings were coming from Faith. She released a deep sigh as she smoothed her own hands down Faith’s muscular back to fondly cup her bottom.

 “I’m splendid.” She swallowed, as sense of vulnerability stealing over her. “My Mate.”

At that, the flames in Faith’s eyes seemed close to erupting, like a fire that had been stoked and she could feel a sense of fondness and deep satisfaction welling from Faith. “Good.” Once again Faith paused to share another deep kiss with her Mate, sharing Alexa’s own life-source with her, before lifting her head again. “Welcome to the Pack.”

Now Faith just had to figure out how to tell her about Willow. what she didn’t realize is that Alexa already felt resonances of Willow. But that was another discussion.  One they’ll have right after Alexa became intimately acquainted with her making Faith cum with her mouth. 


	21. Chapter 21

_Alpha Universe_

 

Willow tried to stem the trembling in her limbs as she finally found the information needed to complete her research for finding and traveling between parallel universes. Luckily since Faith is considered a magical being it is believed she’ll have a magical signature, making it possible to locate her. Fighting off exhaustion, hunger pains, and general stress, she suddenly felt all these months of grief, denial, and tentative hope slam into her, making her light-headed. When she wasn’t delegating responsibilities for the Magical Department or negotiating with external organizations, even governments, over Council-related matters, then she was researching a means to find Faith.

Dawn had been helping since she was the one that initially came up with the idea of Faith being forcibly ejected into another world. But Dawn was also in school; Oxford to be exact, and Willow insisted she concentrate on her studies with the promise to keep Dawn in the loop, and then help Willow when she completed her other priorities.

Standing up for a full-body stretch, her pants sinking annoying low; her clothes had become a little baggier given her penchant for not remembering to eat while she was in research mode. Xander, Giles, Buffy, even Andrew had initially gently balked at Willow and Dawn’s insistence that Faith might still be alive, but they managed to be convinced after presenting a very important point –  the fact that they weren’t able to find  any sign of Faith’s body. Willow had to ignore the bitterness frowning on Kennedy’s face during Willow’s earnest and slightly desperate pleas at the most recent Scoobies meeting, to allow her to investigate a spell they’d found.

Even though things had ended between Kennedy and her, Willow still loved her; she just wasn’t _in love_ with her. Kennedy still professed to love Willow, even though she had a hard time with monogamy during their relationship. Willow chuckled as she remembered having to physically hold Faith back from seeking out Kennedy to give her a _proper_ _beat-down,_ were the words the Slayer used. _They may be best buds, but that meant she had every right to knock some sense into her_ , Faith had explained. It was also at that moment, as her arms were wrapped tight around the straining, warm, sinuously muscled, Slayer, her body rubbing against Willow’s, when she finally acknowledged the tingles dancing across her skin settling low in her abdomen. Her nipples had become hard and stiff as they scrapped themselves against Faith’s back, when she admitted to herself that not only did she mentally find Faith incredibly attractive, but it appeared that her body was in agreement too.

Yet, for all the moments that Willow had found herself in a heated stare-down with the Slayer; swirling browns, even a hint of amber, gazing into her own summer-green irises, especially if Faith had recently returned from Slaying or some other physical Slayer-like activity that aroused her inner-Slayer, it was in those moments that it became harder for Willow to maintain their usual friendly relationship. It was in those moments where it was all she could do to **not** answer that knowing gleam of lust in Faith’s eyes. 

She remembered that one evening after Faith had recently sparred with Buffy only to be left alone as her Sister-Slayer had suddenly been called away to handle some mild emergency. She left behind a sweaty-sexy Faith; her skin glistened, her sleeveless t-shirt lay tight across her upper-body, accentuating her heaving breasts (Willow as a breast-girl was really appreciative of Faith’s beautiful pair), her dark, wavy, hair lay lightly tangled along her muscled shoulders. She stood there, with an inhuman stillness as she slowly unwrapping her hands, staring hungrily at Willow, her body tension-filled, as if she were about to pounce onto Willow at any moment.

And Willow just stood there staring back. She could feel her pulse and other lower parts throb, she stood there like prey facing off with a predator. It was all she could do to not bring the folders she'd been holding in front of her chest in some kind of involuntary defensive reaction, like some kind of damsel in distress. Willow could feel her skin become heated as she became flushed with arousal, especially when she saw Faith slightly tilt her head in Willow’s direction, her nostrils flaring, and Willow knew the Slayer was scenting her, scenting her arousal. It was only when she heard her name being called from behind her, that she finally found the strength to break off her gaze with Faith.

Turning, she saw a smirking Dawn walking towards her. “Ummm, hello?! I’ve only been calling your name for like forever.”  Thankfully, Dawn only greeted Faith before dragging Willow away. It wasn’t until later that Dawn acknowledged the scene.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that Faith was about to ravish you against the wall.” She amusedly watched Willow blush a deep red, her mouthing opening and closing like a fish. “What makes it particularly delish is that it looked like you’d let her.”

After that, Dawn became her confidante on all-things Faith. It helped that Dawn was in between splitting her time between being a student, to becoming a full Watcher, while harnessing her blossoming magic, which meant she was being mostly taught by Willow, interspersed with a few instructional sessions with Giles &/or Buffy and school. However, Willow would have personally instructed Dawn anyways, after everything they’ve been through together because she considered Dawn her Blood Sister. They were family after all.

That also meant that whenever Willow had a ‘Faith-moment’ and needed to talk –especially since she wasn’t ready to tell Buffy about her lust for her Sister Slayer, it meant that she and Dawn often “debriefed” the situation often.  Dawn often exclaimed that she was living vicariously through Willow. Hence another reason why this current situation hit Dawn almost as hard as it hit Willow. About a month after Faith went missing was when Willow finally told Buffy, over an evening of mochas, movies, and popcorn.

“What?! Faith???!” Buffy stared at Willow with her mouth hanging slightly open before realizing it and snapping it shut, and then placing her mocha onto the coffee table. “Wh-how long?”

“Well I’ve always thought Faith was hot. Even back in the Sunnydale days – you’d have to be blind not to.” Tucking a rust-colored lock behind her ear, her eyes falling to her lap, until she felt a warm hand pat her thigh in comfort, Willow hoped that Buffy wouldn’t be too mad at her for not telling her. Or disappointed that she had feelings for Faith.

“Only now that she’s… respectable,” she and Buffy shared a knowing grin, “well respectable for Faith. And responsible, and the girls look up to her, plus she’s helped us save the world a few times, it makes her…  even more attractive.”

Then Willow’s grin turned slightly wicked.  “Not to mention that now she’s all ‘grown-up’, it was like I suddenly realized how…,” she blushed a deep red, “yummy she was and I wanted a bite.”

With a “playful” slap that was harder than Buffy meant, eliciting a yelp from Willow. “Willow! You minx!” Buffy started chucking, then she paused; they shared another look before laughing harder.

Sobering Buffy had a thought. “That’s why you’ve been working so hard to find out if she’s still alive.” She leaned over to hug Willow as she saw those green eyes become watery with tears. “I’m so sorry Will. I didn’t know,” she glared in mocking reproach.

Ducking her head in apology, she wiped her eyes. Sighing, she responded. “I’m sorry Buff. I-I didn’t know how to talk to you about it. You have such a history –we all do. But… it was like a veil was lifted an--,”

“Was it ‘lifted’ before or after Kennedy?” Buffy asked with a smirk.

“Ha-ha.” She paused because she knew the ‘laugh’ was on her. When she saw Buffy lifting a knowing brow, she relented. “Fine. It was before Kennedy and I broke up.”

 She held up a hand staving off what Buffy was about to say. “And no, she had no idea. I had no idea. I just thought it was a reaction from finding out Kennedy couldn’t keep her legs closed.”

“Ok, I’ll give you that. So what made you realize it was different?” Buffy swallowed down some mocha as she waited for Willow’s answer.

“I don’t know. But if I had to guess, it was the moment she took me out to cheer me up after the whole Kennedy-thing.” She paused. “She was so… well… sweet.” Willow remembered with some bemusement. Sweet, was not a word you’d ever think to apply to Faith.

“Sweet? Faith and ‘sweet’ don’t exactly go together. Are you sure we’re talking about the same Faith?”

But what Willow hadn’t told anyone was that she believed that she and Faith were mystically… connected. This… connection appeared to of grown stronger ever since she performed that spell activating all the Slayers back in Sunnydale. Apparently, the Slayer line now flew through Faith and when Willow performed that spell, that connection or bond now flows through Willow, as well. Almost like her mystical Council Tracking Map, Willow knew who or sometimes _what_ was in the room before she saw them. 

When a Slayer like Vi or Kennedy walked into the room, she felt a slightly warm buzz in her lower abdomen and the base of her neck, if it was another witch that buzz became more like a mild, icy-hot feeling. But if it was Dawn, the buzz became more of a warm hum and when it was Buffy that hum slightly tingled. However, with Faith that hum grew stronger, becoming an almost distracting pleasurable hum. It added to Willow’s desire to get naked, to engage in some kind of feral lust, that often…

Not to mention for some inexplicable reason Willow could track Faith’s scent. If Faith was a few doors down or if she’d recently left an area that Willow had just entered, Willow somehow knew it was Faith. It wasn't the scent of her bodywash or her occasionally-applied perfume, it was her natural scent. And it was delicious! Added to this was that when Willow didn’t see or hear from Faith for a few days, she became anxious, unsettled, cranky even, with nothing to explain these sensations.  But the reason for that was becoming clearer and it gave Willow the warm-tinglies knowing the possibilities. 


	22. Chapter 22

Faith, Safiya, Alexa, Masud, Isis, and two of the newer Enforcers parked their cars on the quiet cul-de-sac.  They were officially meeting with Jean-Claude, Master of the City of St. Louis, but they insisted that they meet anywhere other than one of Jean-Claude’s establishments. Mentally rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of having to officially present themselves before Jean-Claude, Faith carefully reviewed the strategy-meeting she had last night with Isis, Safiya, and Alexa. Faith had never been good at bowing down to anyone, even when she’d been a Potential getting the crap beat out of her by her mom’s latest “boyfriend.” If anything since those “warm” childhood memories, she became a strong believer that respect had to be earned, not just given.

But Safiya and Isis had cautioned her that as Master of the City, Jean-Claude fought many battles with some truly evil beings, including the former Master of the City, who’d been a true, sadistic, bitch. Alexa, accessed her research and guide skills, was able to gather a great deal of information about the St. Louis’ infamous Preternatural community. It had become legendary, so legendary in fact, that it gained the attention of the Vampire Council, other Masters of the City, and powerful Weres around the U.S. looking to take on Jean-Claude out of fear of his growing power.

 Apparently various factions representing these groups have sent everything from assassins to Master Vampires from the Council itself to take out Jean-Claude. However his power was believed to be directly connected to his human servant; Anita Blake, whom was also quite deadly, while the local Ulfric, Richard, a powerful Were, while the weaker link due to his self-hatred, was still powerful since he was able to maintain his leadership over the largest Werewolf community in the country.

 _All in all, it was like one giant soap-opera_ , Faith thought in disgust. On top of all this, both this Anita chick and Jean-Claude had the abilities of a succubus and incubus. So apparently, Anita has LOTS of lovers as result. _Sounds messy_ if anyone bothered to ask Faith.  But it seemed like Anita was the more interesting piece in this drama, because not only was she Jean-Claude’s human servant,  she was also a Master Necromancer and while Faith didn't understand what that meant beyond that fact that she got familiar with zombies, it sounded pretty impressive. And powerful. In addition, as a certified Vampire Executioner and U.S. Marshall Anita has also amassed quite the body count (of course she had NOTHING on Faith or Buffy). And finally, she was also the Queen or Nimir-Ra (Faith was still trying to wrap her head around all these titles) of the local Were-Leopard pard, and the Wolves’ Bolverk.

All of this ran through her mind, as she tried to calm the Slayer, whose senses were going crazy due to the Vampires and Preternatural energies swirling around her as she watched Anita’s door open and more Vampires and Weres spilled out to stand on the Executioner’s porch.  One person, a swarthy, powerfully built, male in pressed slacks and dress-shirt, began walking towards them, while Faith’s Pack got out of their vehicles. Several individuals carefully watched as he approached Faith.

He stopped in front of her and held out his hand in greeting. Faith delicately sniffed the air… Rat. giving an internal shudder, while ignoring the energy crawling over her skin, awakening her Beast and the Slayer, she reached out and shook his hand.

“Welcome, _Shuhan_. My name is Rafael, the Rat King. I trust you had no difficulty finding this place?” 

Faith found it curious that he knew she was the _Shuhan_ , but not surprising. “No the directions were perfect. And the name’s Faith.” She turned towards her Pack members began introducing them to the Rat King.

“If you will follow me; everyone is waiting.” Nodding at her Pack, they followed him into the house, ignoring the suspicious looks and the occasional look of awe.

In the doorway stood Anita, who was doing her best to lessen her scowling. No doubt, she had her guns taken away. Faith had heard she was trigger-happy. But because Faith was a bit of smart-ass she couldn’t help herself from poking the scowling woman.

“How’s it goin’ short-stuff? You’re not gonna try to hump my leg this time are you?” Faith grinned, flashing her impressive dimples to lessen the remarks. Hopefully.

When she heard a growl leak from Anita’s lips, it was all Faith could to not chuckle. But she knew that would only aggravate the situation and she was trying to be more mature these days. Holding up her hands in a placating gesture, she tried to calm the woman. But she was interrupted when a male with hair flowing all the way to his ankles, laid his hand on Anita’s tense shoulders with familiarity, and then leaned to nuzzle along her neck, whispering something.

Another male, the red-headed Vampire with the amazing green eyes from the club, came up behind the couple, followed by another from the club, the long and curly-haired, short male, with the cool cat-eyes, filled the doorway entirely. “So are you gonna let us in or are we gonna have picnic out here on the front lawn?”

The long-haired male who was calming the infamous Executioner, stepped back with Anita, and politely gestures inside the house. “Of course. Please, come in.”

 he reached out a hand in greeting. “My name is Nathaniel , gesturing towards the Vampire and the short male, “this is Damian and my Nimir-Raj, Micah. You already know Anita.”

Even from a couple feet away, Faith could feel his Beast, leopard, and its connection to the Necromancer. Opening her senses even more Faith could also feel that link to the other two males, the red-headed Vampire and the long, curly-haired short male. However, aside from Anita, it was only the short male whose Beast projected Dominance.

They walked into a living room, already occupied with even more people; some from the club, like the female Wolf, the Ulfric with his chiseled good-looks, stood with his huge, muscular arms folded and looking distinctly displeased,  next to his Enforcers. Another unfamiliar male, who had long gorgeous blonde hair, stood in between the Ulfric and a huge Power source emanating from the male (who apparently stole into Prince’s wardrobe) chair. What she could see of his face – one side was artfully covered entirely by his blonde hair, was male-model stunning. She could also sense, that unlike Damian, this guy had a lot more juice. The Power strumming from him was intense, like standing near an icy-hot steam bath. With a discreet sniff of the air, mingling with all the Wolves, leopards, and (she endeavored to not scrunch her nose) rat, was… the smell of hyena. And it was coming from the blonde-haired Vampire.

Back to the most powerful male in lace, who was busy staring at Faith. Gorgeous blue eyes, framed by thick, dark lashes, long, curling, black hair, fell thickly around his back and shoulders, his features managed to somehow look both: slightly effeminate yet chiseled and masculine. Without all the lace and leather, plus he was a little on the too-pale side, he was a stunning man. And judging by the Power leaking from him, next to Anita, he was also the most powerful. She watched as Anita, Nathaniel, and Micah, walked towards the group.

However, her Slayer wasn’t sure she liked him.

 In fact, it was all Faith could do to chill out the answering aggression from her Hound. Luckily Safiya and she had been working diligently on Faith learning how to erect powerful shields, because when her Slayer-Hound’s battle instincts were awakened then the Power was likened to a Dragon breathing fire. Consequently, if they were aiming to ‘make friends’, alerting these people to just how powerful Faith and her Pack were, would be a bad idea. In her experience those who held onto power tended to be wary of those who were just as, if not, more powerful.

“Something humors you? Perhaps you would care to share?” The blonde Vampire drawled with a thick French accent, his piercing icy-blue eyes were now attempting to ‘roll’ Faith. But it only caused Faith to roll her eyes at the walking-cliché, yet gorgeous male.

Sighing, Faith wondered how soon they could finish this up. “Look, as promised, we’re ‘presenting’ ourselves at the designated time.” She directed her focus to the dark-haired Vampire, “And I’m guessing you’re Jean-Claude, Master of the City?”

Something akin to humor flashed through his eyes, as he stood up and seemingly glided across the room, towards Faith.

“Qui.” He nodded at the rest of her Pack before refocusing on Faith. “It has been some time since I have met a true Were-Hound. In fact, it was thought that they had become extinct. Imagine my surprise when I ‘ad learned that we not only ‘ave an entire Pack, but a legendary _Shuhan_ in my territory.”

“Well, as plans go, I had to work with what I had.” It was then that she noticed that Jean-Claude was attempting to reach out with something other than the usual Vampire tricks. what she didn't know that Jean-Claude was as... concerned about this meeting. to gain an allegiance of such a powerful entity as the Were-Hound was intoxicating, and would no doubt alarm the Vampire Council. But it might also make them pause. so it was with this thought that he attempted to 'test' Faith.

Something so powerful and wholly intoxicating, that it stopped her Slayer and Hound in their tracks. Power like icy-hot and thick like sludge… yet weirdly delicious. It rolled over Faith's Beast and Slayer like waves of icy-warm honey, making her pulse throb, her stomach clench, and her skin tightened.

Faith narrowed her eyes at Jean-Claude, glaring into deep-blues so dark they were almost black, then allowed a little of her Power to leak, pushing back against whatever Power was creeping over her senses, her nails slowly and menacingly grew into claws,  her eyes began to glow hot, and when they erupted into flames, the alien sensation was suddenly jerked back, as Jean-Claude straightened.

“Try that again J-C and we’re gonna have a problem,” she growled. She ignored the shifting around the room as she imitated the pre-boxer’s-death-stare-down with Jean-Claude.

Right before both the blonde Vampire and Anita opened their mouths to respond in kind, without breaking his stare with Faith, Jean-Claude held up a hand to quiet the room. “My apologies, Mademoiselle. Please let’s begin again and let us start with introductions. Qui?” 


	23. Chapter 23

“So let me get this straight: you currently have about seven stand-in boyfriends, one of them being the Master of the City, along with a few ‘extra helpings’ on the side?” Faith could only stare at Anita, who was busy scowling at Faith in return. They sat sipping coffee while waiting  for their tail to come out of a shop across the street.

Anita gritted her teeth, trying desperately to curb her instinct to strangle this woman and at the same time quiet her Beasts, who were anxiously pacing in reaction Faith’s Beast and Slayer. Her eyebrows proceeded to crawl up her forehead when the woman started laughing… hard. Faith’s reaction was… unusual if not mightily insulting. Many people became Puritanically uncomfortable, others became outright hostile, mostly having to do to their own bigotry against the Preternatural community. Some became suspicious as they thought about how to use this information against either Anita or Jean-Claude. However, most women tended to be catty and morally self-righteous, so Faith’s reaction while very annoying, was unusual.

But she promised Micah and Nathaniel, who’d traitorously taken a liking to Faith that she’d be on her best behavior. Besides the thing they were tailing was unlike anything Anita had ever come across. And while she’d usually be calling in Edward, Faith immediately and insistently volunteered, claiming she had the experience and the expertise in dealing with demons. In fact, she was specifically suited for the job—she was a Slayer and a Hell-Hound.

However, Anita was stubborn and was about to refuse yet again, except Faith made her arguments in front of Jean-Claude, who wanted the matter settled because they had enough enemies to worry about. A demon who could melt Weres and Vampires into puddles while siphoning energy from them, was NOT something they could afford let loose around St. Louis any longer than necessary.

“When you’re finished laughing yourself silly, perhaps we can get back to the issue at hand.” She glaringly watched as Faith’s humor winded down to snickers, her hand coming up to wipe away her tears of laughter.  “How do you plan to kill this thing or do you even have a plan?”

Still snickering, Faith looked at her companion in her cute red t-shirt, not-so-designer jeans, and her cute little Nike sneakers. With an untrained eye and a fast glance, you’d think the Necromancer was unassuming. That is until you see the hint of a gun(s) and knives bulging in certain places under her clothes. Not to mention, her Power was… considerable. It was like standing next to an electric current; she almost expected to see the hairs on her body stand. Plus, her Hound was very curious about the menagerie living inside this woman.

Then there was the _look_ in her eyes, the look of someone that’s seen death and horrible things, and has occasionally been called to do horrible things in return. That didn’t diminish Anita’s other… abilities; she needed sex, and given the number of men in her life, a lot of it.

“With Its head meeting my knife.” She lifted her mocha to her lips to take a swig. “Now, back to you: so do you engage ‘Operation Gang-Bang’ or is it just a matter of whoever is nearby?”

Anita realized her mouth was agape and then hastily closed it. “Wh-what?! That’s your plan?! And what business is it of yours what my sex life is like?!” She could barely contain a growl when Faith only continued to look amused. “Not that I have to explain myself to you, but I don’t have a choice!” She shook her head, she couldn’t believe she was explaining anything to this woman. “If I don’t, I die. It’s very simple.”

Faith realized she’d pushed Anita far enough. “All right, all right, don’t get your knickers in a twist.” She chuckled, holding up her hands in a placating gesture, as she remembered one of her favorite lines from Spike. “It’s just you’re pullin’ off ‘slutty’ a lot more classier than most chicks I know with that kind of body count.”

Anita tried mightily to not pull her gun on this infuriating woman, understanding that Faith was getting her kicks at her expense. Supremely annoyed, she was about to respond with an anatomically impossible suggestion before her cell rang. Still glaring at Faith she answered it, listening as Damian filled her in on any additional information on their quarry, which wasn’t much. It was all she could do to not give into a howl of frustration when she realized that she really had to rely on Faith’s expertise in dealing with this… demon.

She still wasn’t entirely convinced it was a... _demon_ , even though the bodies of its victims (both human and lycanthrope alike) were found, blood, tissue, and gore, seemingly melted like wax, in place of what they once were. Anita thought that it may have been the work of some latest nightmare sent by a member of the infamous Vampire Council or even some powerful warlock or witch. But Jean-Claude was able to dismiss that idea once he verified through both official and unofficial channels.

When Faith showed up on the scene, complete with a brand new U.S. Marshall badge, she took one sniff and declared it was a demon. Anita had dealt with all kinds of terrible things that go bump in the night and an occasional human-monster (a picture of Olaf flickered through her mind), she was sure that the conditions of the victims had to fit at least one of one of those creatures. But after a sniff of the crime scenes, some discussion with Jean-Claude, Asher, Damian, Claudia, Sylvie, even Raphael, it confirmed that whatever it was it something they were completely unfamiliar with.

All this was going through Anita’s mind during the thankfully silent, yet alert stake-out for their quarry.

“So what’s with all your men and the Fabio-hair?” The suspiciously amused drawl from Faith, as she cleaned her fingernails with a particularly lethal-looking blade, shattered Anita’s hopes that Faith would remain quiet until they had to act.

Anita practically hissed at her the Slayer, before realizing that Faith would no doubt, get a kick out her losing her cool. “What the hell does that mean and who is Fabio?!” She shook her head. “Never mind I don’t want to know, because you’ll just irritate me more than you already have. And then I might have to shoot you.”

But Faith only laughed at the pointed threat, her dimples in spectacular relief. “Lighten up. I’m just saying; you obviously gotta thing for guys with long, kinda girly hair.”

Anita could feel a headache threatening on the horizon. She rubbed a hand along her brow, trying to ignore her companion’s voice. “Do you really want me to choke you out?! And as for my lover’s hair preferences, it’s none of your business.” Then internally cursed herself for allowing her emotions to get the best of her. “Look, let’s just focus on the mission. We can gab about our lives later.”

Her animals were suspiciously silent, as if they were as entertained by their exchange as Faith clearly was. Just as Faith was about to respond they saw their quarry leaving the alley, immediately everything became serious. Faith tensed and Anita watched as all laughter left her face and in its place was a…. _hunter_ , a predator. It was the look of someone who did what needs being done and had the experience to back that up. Anita thought back to a conversation she had with Faith about Anita’s infamous kill-count.

The Slayer-Hound had been listening as Jason and Anita were talking about an article in the local paper about Anita and her prolific record as a Vampire Executioner. As Jason worked his way through his very sweet defense of Anita as a good person – despite the reporter’s sensationalistic and somewhat negative portrayal of Anita, had asked Anita about her number of kills.

 _“Don’t pay attention to all this crap Anita. Besides they always exaggerate stuff. I mean really what is your kill count? 50…?” He trailed off when he saw that it was making Anita slightly uncomfortable._

 _But she wasn’t embarrassed, it was more about Anita’s struggle with becoming a… Monster. With almost all of her kills, she wouldn’t give a second thought, simply because they’d been much bigger Monsters than she was. At least she hoped. But with her evolving Powers, of which included essentially turning into a Living Vampire… her stubborn refusal to do certain things, the barrier between Monster and human was becoming a much grayer, nebulous area._

 _Suddenly a husky voice chimed in. “50? I think I cleared that in one night during one of the Apocalypses. Shit, B might a cleared that in a couple hours.” At that astonishing statement all eyes turned to patently bored Faith who was currently focused on shoveling one or five cookies into her mouth. When she finally noticed the stunned silence she paused in licking the chocolate off of her fingers to focus on her audience._

 _“What?! It’s just that we’ve faced hordes of demons and ancient, feral, Vamps coming outta a Hellmouth, or a group of Ta’Mak demons, who always hunt in packs, you could have anywhere from 2-500 kills in a month. So if you’re worried about some asshat ‘questioning’ your morals over 50 kills, don’t. You do what needs bein’ done and that’s to not get you or your peeps dead. Period.”_

 _But of course Jason couldn’t leave it at that. “So wait a minute, are you telling me you’ve killed hundreds?” he asked disbelievingly._

 _Suddenly Faith got serious, her eyes started glowing, the unusual swatch of colors that made up her irises seemed to expand, and it was obvious she let loose some of her Power. That Power washed over everyone in the room, until Jason began cowering against Anita, his Beast immediately understanding the dominance of a very strong Alpha. “I ain’t here to compare fuckin’ notes. A lot of good people died in those battles, but it was a battle in a war that ain’t ever gonna end. No matter what fuckin’ dimension it is.”_

 _Faith remembered how very scared she was the moment she became a Slayer and even more so when she discovered that there were scarier monsters than the scumbags her mom used to bring home. Mentally shaking her head, she focused on everyone in the room, particularly Anita. **You’d think that as many times as Anita gets her cork popped she’d be less uptight, but maybe balancing that many boyfriends can be kinda stressful,** she mused. Feeling a warm palm on her shoulder, she smelled the scent of her lover and Guardian-Mate, Alexa. Faith turned her head and stretched out to peck her on the lips, before returning to the conversation that she wished she never entered. _

_She sighed when she realized she’d leaked out some of her Power causing the Submissives, like Jason to start to cower. Faith immediately toned it down. “Sorry, but you don’t know me and I’ll give ya that this world ain’t no picnic, but mine is literally like a war, and me and my peeps gotta front-row seat in almost every battle.”_

 _***_

“You ready?” Anita looked over at Faith and swore she saw a doggy-grin in anticipation of the hunt. Minutely patting down her assortment of weapons: the **Browning Hi-Power** and her **Firestar** in her inner-pants, along with an assortment of knives, plus a couple of specialized grenades in pack strapped along her waist, she was all-set.

Faith stood up, sniffed the air as they watched their quarry disappear down another alley. Anita noticed that aside from a knife sheath in the center of her back, she couldn’t tell what other weapons Faith brought along. Faith noticed her frown. “What’s wrong?”

Standing up as well, Anita hurried alongside Faith after their perp. “You always travel light?” She motioned towards her knife, indicating her lack of weaponry.

Faith simply smirked. “I’ve been doing this since I was 15. You’re just gonna have to trust me—cause I live for this shit!” And with that she sped up, almost to a jog, with Anita coming up just behind her.

She felt Faith let loose her Were-Hound a little; she Shifted her hands, the skin turning dark and the color sweeping up along her muscular arms, as her nails turned black and lengthened to deadly points. Her Beast was strong, one of the strongest Anita had ever felt, considering some of the Weres she’s met throughout her life, that was saying something, and it was an uncomfortable realization. It woke Anita’s Weres, she could see them pacing back and forth, sniffing the air to discern the powerful Alpha nearby.

 **Ma petite, I trust that everything is going well.** Jean-Claude tended to check-in when he could feel an awareness of something unusual. Obviously he could feel Faith’s power awakening. She knew he was still smarting over Faith’s insistence that she, along with Anita’s assistance as the official law enforcement liaison, be the ones to handle this new threat. It was bad enough Faith practically bullied Damian and Jason, seductively threatened Asher, sweetly convinced Nathaniel, and inappropriately propositioned both Micah and Claudia, so by the time Anita entered the room from cuddling and convincing Jean-Claude to allow just Faith and her to look into these unusual killings, the room was in an uproar.  Meanwhile Faith stood grinning, her canines a little longer than a few moments ago, as her Mate, Alexa tried to calm the injured parties. After she convinced Claudia to not challenge Faith, (mostly because Anita wasn’t certain that Faith wouldn’t kill Claudia), she managed to drag Faith inside Jean-Claude’s room, while she returned to arguing combatants.

After a battle of wills between Jean-Claude and Faith, that almost sent everyone running for the hills as Power washed across the room, filling up the building, causing Anita’s ardeur to reach out its tendrils of want and heat. But Anita furiously clamped down before her lovers began clamoring for attention. Instead she fed off all the heightened emotions zipping around the room, even though the want caused her stomach to knot with ferocious need. Nathaniel immediately curled himself into her side, the suppleness of his skin looking delicious, eliciting the need to taste, to bite, to search out the thick blood racing through his veins.

But it wasn’t the time or the place. Not when Faith inadvertently forced Jean-Claude’s hand to compel Faith as head of her Pack, to a formal allegiance to Jean-Claude, Master of the City. Once that was settled, Anita ended up staying to soothe her Pard, feed her ardeur while making love to Jean-Claude and Asher. Through their link, she could feel that Jean-Claude was a little relieved that faith aligned herself to Jean-Claude--- having a powerful and rare Were species as a Were-Hound forming in St. Louis, in addition to Faith being a legendary **_Shuhan_** and Slayer, suddenly expanded Jean-Claude’s power base exponentially.

Nevertheless it didn’t diminish Faith’s penchant for creating havoc. Yet for some reason while Faith did her very best to irritate her, she seemed to have absolutely little self-preservation when it came to Anita, and Anita wasn't sure if that was due to lack of respect or something else. She suspected a little of both. But Faith also seemed to trust Anita a little in fight. Consequently, it was probably the reason why she was following Faith down a dank and dingy alley, instead of Micah or Asher.

 **Everything is fine. We’re in pursuit at the moment, I promise to be careful.** When Faith started to slow until she became still, her muscles tense, almost twitching, Anita knew she had to completely focus.

 **Gotta go sweetie. I’ll see you soon.**

 **Very well, ma petite. I will await your return.**

Faith Shifted even more, Anita politely turned away as she started to remove her clothes, glad that Faith was focused on the mission because Anita was sure Faith would usually say something about her supposed prudishness. And then she’d have to punch her in the mouth. Anita like almost everyone else, except for Wicked and Truth, who were the only ones who claimed they’ve come across a Were-Hound, wondered what a fully Shifted Were-Hound looked like. 

“Stay back, it’s about to get very hot,” Faith whispered.

Seamlessly, Faith Shifted until she stood close to 10ft, beautiful onyx-colored fur coated along powerful muscular legs, broad shoulders that would surely block out the sun if they’d be standing in an open field. She could almost look like one of Richard’s Pack-mates, except she’d never seen any that big. Plus, and this was huge, they didn’t ‘flame-on’ around their hands, or flames replaced eyes, and puffs of air were replaced by small puffs of blue fire. All in all, the Beast was impressive, incredibly Dominant, enough so that only the more aggressive of her psychic Weres roared in response, the sound ringing around her head, momentarily blocking out other sounds.

Faith seemed to give an actual doggy-grin and  then turned towards their quarry. A roar from behind the dumpster sounded and the thing that stepped out from behind it was almost as big as Faith… or at least It had more arms.

 _What the hell is that?!_ The thing was green, shiny with some kind of slime coating it. in addition it had two huge purple horns curving out and up, like a bull. Another roar allowed Anita to see it had a row of very sharp teeth meant for tearing and shredding. Quickly pulling her Browning from her specially-made holster, she started unloading bullets into the thing. But it expelled them from its flesh, with smoke and a sizzle. When the thing launched forward, almost flying towards them, the Were-Hound simply grabbed one Its arms and swung it into the brick building, causing a huge indentation and falling motar. Faith turned her great head towards Anita and motioned at her knife-hand a severing motion across her throat.

Nodding in reply, Anita holstered her gun and pulled her long blade from its sheath on her back, readying herself to strike. Faith gave a mighty roar in return, expelling a plume of blue fire at the creature’s face, causing it to immediately painfully shriek in response. The Were-Hound brought her other paw/hand up, digging in her dagger-like nail into Its shoulder, causing yellow, smelly, blood to pour out, as she pivoted the creature in Anita’s direction, until its back was facing Anita.

Anita was ready. Centering herself, she quickly and expertly brought her blade into an arc until it connected with what she assumed was the creature’s neck, the skin melting disgustingly as the blue fire licked its surface, until she strongly and smoothly exited the other side, completely detaching the creature’s neck. The shrieking immediately stopped, until only their panting and crinkling of the fire on the skin  as it melted.

The smell was beyond disgusting; _if a burnt, dirty-diaper could be deemed a ‘smell’ instead of an offense to the senses, then that’s the closest she could think of_ , thought Anita. Not to mention she got some the creature’s blood on her shoes and jeans. She watched as Faith leaned down and blew fire over the rest of the body. The Were-Hound stepped away, began decreasing in size, and the fur receded like a wave on a shoreline. Only the very powerful Weres could Shift so seamlessly. In fact the only one she could remember that could do that as easyily as Faith, was the very psychotic and the very dead Chimera.

Finally, the human-looking Faith stood naked and quivering from the Shift. Naturally she was grinning as she tossed back her thick and lush hair. “Man that was a rush!”

Anita rolled her eyes as she threw Faith’s clothes at her. “Hurry up the smell is making gag.” She pulled out her cellphone and called Nathaniel to let him know that it was done and that she needed a shower.

Once she was fully dressed, Faith pulled the garbage dump and effortlessly tipped it onto the quickly melting creature, before refocusing her attention on Anita. “So liked what you see?”

“Honestly Faith, are you trying to make me punch you?” But as much as Anita hated to admit it, Faith was… refreshing, among all the cynical, damaged, people that surround her. If Anita wasn’t careful, she might end up… liking her. And that would a disaster because it wasn’t as if her life wasn’t already crazy enough. “Let’s go, Fido,” she stifled a grin at Faith’s look of mock outrage at the nickname, “I’m sure you’re getting’ hungry. Nathaniel cooked.”

She suspected that life was about to get even more… complex. Only maybe it’ll be in their favor for once. 


	24. Chapter 24

Faith once again found herself staring at the stars in the huge, expansive back-yard, once again trying to desperately quell the sensation of homesickness, but mostly of Willow. She thought her Claiming Alexa would have diminished her need for Willow, but in fact, it seemed the opposite. It was if Faith had started a chain-reaction that seemed to only get worse the longer this sensation of incompleteness was left to fester.

Incompleteness seemed such a simple word for what felt like at times she was crawling out of her skin. Usually a good slaying or a few hours with Alexa helped to tame the phenomena. After immediately consulting with the Caretakers, Safiya confirmed for Faith the notion that Alexa’s Claiming would only provide a temporary solution and in fact, would only make the…. _wanting_ , the _need_ , the slight feeling of emptiness, would become  worse.  Yes, while Alexa gave her some contentment, it was clear something was… missing.

She thought she’d have a difficult time explaining Willow to Alexa, but Alexa said she’d already… _felt_ her, even understood her importance to Faith. But Faith had a sneaking suspicion that Alexa wouldn’t necessarily make it easy for Willow to claim her place in Faith’s life, in their lives. Since this was a situation that she had no frame of reference for, she decided to let it go, for now.

What was important was getting home and leaving her Pack protected. She thought after her dealings _with J-C & Co._, she believed she had solution for her Pack. She’d already made an appointment with Anita and Micah. His Furry Coalition might be helpful and while Anita and she still locked horns on occasion, Anita knew enough about Faith to know that in a fight, there were few better, or more powerful.  Especially since Faith saved Nathaniel and Micah’s life one night. She’d been prowling the Blood District, looking for some action – she may not be able to indiscriminately kill Vamps and other so-called Monsters, she can certainly seriously harm badly-behaving ones, before alerting Anita.

A group of bikers had just entered town; a mixture of Wolves, Vampires, and weirdly enough a couple of Were-Reptiles (on account of their elliptical irises you see on either snakes or some lizards) made up this motley group. Nathaniel and Micah had stopped in the Lunatic Café for a bite after dealing with some Furry Coalition stuff. They’d been walking for a bit before a couple of these bikers with their sights set on Nathaniel, no doubt, smelling his submissiveness, decided to test their “charms.” They ignored the scent of Anita’s Claim, probably figuring if she let him out alone, then she’d only have herself to blame if someone else “played” with him. Only they were resistant to the idea of “no, means no.” Micah had Shifted but was busy fending off two of the bigger Weres, while Nathaniel was pressed to the ground by one of the Were-Reptiles, with a knife lodged in one of his shoulders.

Needless to say, Faith had no problem entering the fray and in minutes it was finished. When Anita, Damian, Asher, another Were-Rat named Claudia, and Jason pulled up the scene, the RPIT folks were still trying to put out the flames, while collecting detached limbs. Initially Anita was sure it’d been Faith’s fault, but Nathaniel and a growling Micah immediately stood protectively in front of her and dissuaded her of that idea. All in all it was a great night and an even better ‘community-relations-building.’

A warm hand on her shoulder pulled Faith out her troubled thoughts. It was Miko. “I can feel you… are you all right?”

She clasped the smaller hand, tugging her around to slug an arm over Miko’s shoulders. Sighing she thought about how to answer that question. “Yeah kid. It’s just… I miss em’, you know?”

She missed the look of fear flashing through Miko’s eyes. “Are… are you leaving us… me?” 

Faith turned to look at Miko. She gently cupped her chin. “The Pack is stronger than it’s been in decades.  We’re under J-C’s protection and everyone lo--,”

“I don’t care about anyone else! I belong with you! You’re my family! You promised!” She furiously wiped away the tears welling in her eyes, before straightening with determination. “You’re not leavin’ me behind. And I’m pretty sure Safiya, Masud, and Isis, will be following close behind. And what about Alexa?!”

“I don’t know!” she shouted then immediately became contrite when she saw Miko cringe back in fear. Immediately Faith enfolded her in her arms, hugging Miko tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at ya. It’s just…I, I… can still feel them.”

Miko looked up at Faith with huge bronze-colored eyes. “Don’t leave me. Please!” she whispered brokenly.

Closing her eyes against the onslaught of emotions, Faith only knew one answer. “Ok. I won’t.”

“Promise?” Faith watched as a tear rolled down Miko’s cheek.

She hugged her even tighter. “With my life. I’ll never leave you.”

Miko lifted her head from Faith’s shoulder. “You can’t leave them either. They’re yours.”

Sighing, Faith rubbed her nose into the apple-scented curls, ignoring the approaching group. “All right.”

“Well we are happy that you have made the right decision, _Shuhan_.” The dulcet tones of Safiya came from behind them.

A wack on her shoulder made Faith loosen her hold on Miko. “I can’t believe you would even consider leaving us behind.”

Faith turned fully to face the rest of her family: Safiya, Masud, Isis, and Alexa. Alexa stood with her arms folded staring at her in mock-anger. At least Faith hoped. “I’m sorry. I thought it important to keep re-building the Circle, the Pack. But I need to find a way home.”

Alexa over her pique, moved closer into Faith’s personal space, and then curled her hand around Faith’s neck, pulling her in for an almost chaste kiss. “We’re all going home. Because don’t you know? Our **_home_** is anywhere you are.”


	25. Chapter 25

The sweat cooled on their bodies as their heart-rate fell to manageable levels. Breasts still heaving, nipples taut and slightly swollen from the vigorous tugging, rolling, nibbling and sucking on by her Mate underneath her. She rarely got to be ‘on top,’ Faith’s Dominance found it difficult to give up control. However, Alexa was her Guardian-Mate and this _exclusive club_ came with its own privileges. Now her body was still pulsing with the ferocious orgasm she’d just experienced as Faith hungrily and greedily tongue-fucked her into spilling her cum all over her Mate’s face. In fact, Alexa thought she was still cumming; her cunt walls were still involuntarily doing that rhythmic-clenching thing and her clit continued to twitch. All in all, the moment was… delicious.

She slid off of Faith’s body as Faith tugged her into her body, allowing Alexa to snuggle in with one leg thrown over Faith’s thighs, her arm wrapped along the Slayer-Hound’s waist, while her face tucked into the crook of her Mate’s neck. For a few moments, they allowed the post-orgasmic moment to simmer down, breathing in each other, enjoy the moments of quiet and contentment they rarely had the opportunity to experience lately. Ever since their “official introduction” into St. Louis’ Preternatural world and aligning themselves with the Master of the City: Jean-Claude, they’d been kept busy with various functions, an occasional demon or two, and a couple attempts on the lives of the infamous triumvirate of JC, Anita, or “Beefcake” Richard.

Alexa had also been noticing something else. A wall had been lowered since she was Claimed by Faith. Memories, third-person experiences, histories, etc., all rolled through Alexa’s mind like a film. And it wasn’t just her human or the legacy of the Were-Hound. The Hunter, the one who’d saved her life in the pyramid; somehow he’d passed on some of his DNA to her.  As part of her original upgrade of being faster, stronger, heightened senses: hearing, smelling, and seeing, she’d inherited other _gifts_. Ever since she’d was Claimed by Faith, she started to see temperatures. At first she thought it might be auras. But then she noticed that the colors stayed consistent with each species: except of course and predictably, Anita, JC, and Richard. And Faith – her ‘color’ was red, with a weird green coloring creeping along the edges. All thanks to the Hunter she’d met on that icy, hell-hole, pyramid.

She didn’t know the name of his species, or if, more likely, when they’d use Earth as their hunting ground again. Even worse, she worried if more of those **_things_** , those black, powerful, insect-like creatures, were buried somewhere, waiting for a warm body to activate them. If the story Sebastian shared with her about their long history with Earth was true, then chances are Bouvetøya Island wasn’t the only place on earth that this deadly game was played.

She also noticed that her desire to hunt prey had grown steadily stronger. Faith had the same instincts compliments of being the Slayer. But she’d had years to hone this instinct to a fine art and it seemed to mostly be directed towards things that are considered evil. Most recently they’d been at  JC’s place, discussing something when an elegantly-dressed male, with white-blonde hair that looked almost like… very fine feathers(?),  very pale skin, but not pale like a Vampire, pale like a porcelain doll with pinkened cheeks. An undertone of healthy pink, made his flesh look almost… succulent. When she locked eyes with him the urge to growl, to… corner, to stalk him became almost unbearable. Her body felt charged; she sniffed the air, underneath the overpowering scents of the various Weres, or the deadly-sweet scents of the Vampires, her delicious, cinnamon-vanilla scent of her Mate, and other comforting scents of her Pack-Mates, was... prey.

Judging by the look of growing fear in the man’s eyes, he knew it. It was also clear that he was trying to not appear scared. False bravado caused him to slightly puff up his chest, as if he was challenging her. Unbeknownst to her, her irises grew to pitch-black pin-prick, the whitish-part – the cornea, glowed a yellowish-golden color, as they narrowed in on its prey. Inhuman, dangerous, particularly when her lips lifted up into a silent snarl, the room, its occupants, all became white noise. Her legs widened their stance slightly, bending her knees as if she readying her body to pounce, her shoulders hunched and tightened, her body tense and powerful, her nails had Shifted until they grew black and sharp, and her breathing deepened until she was almost gently panting. But as she was preparing to launch herself across the room, Faith’s hand came down on her shoulder, jarring her out of the moment like being thrown into an icy-shower.

“You need to calm down babe. I know what you’re feeling, but he isn’t on the menu.” Faith looked at Alexa in concern, ignoring the frowns echoing around the room as they realized how close to danger their friend, the Swan King, Reese Donovan, was.

What Alexa didn’t know was that through their link, Faith had been noticing something slightly off when she Claimed Alexa. First her blood had tasted and smelled different. Faith knew about the events of Bouvetøya Island and Alexa even informed her that she was infected with something, changing her. She just didn’t know the extent of that Change. The fact that aliens visit the planet didn’t faze Faith one bit, not after some of the stuff she’d seen. What did concern her was the type of species Alexa described and miraculously lived to tell. Faith knew that if she ever made it back to her ‘verse she planned on preparing the troops just in case. In fact, she planned to do the same here because if Alexa was infected, who’s to say she wasn’t lit up like a GPS tracking system to the species that infected her?

Plus through their connection, Faith got to experience the feel of those memories, so when Alexa became scared or anxious, Faith could feel it ten-fold. It was why Faith felt the intense need to hunt sweep over her and for a few moments thought the sensation was coming from her, but then when she looked over to see that Alexa had partially Shifted, was when Faith realized it was coming from her Mate.  But the biggest ‘tell’ of Alexa’s unique “designer-DNA” was when she Shifted. It wasn’t the usual humanoid, Were-Hound. For one thing her eyes weren’t the usual total pools of gold, reddish-copper, or reddish-gold, yellowish-gold, even a combination of all four.  While Alexa also sprouted up patches of thick, silky, black fur on her body, along her head grew thick, matted strands of dark fur, so that it almost looked like she had dreds. In addition, her Were-Hound’s forehead became broader, as the fur swept back, almost like a bad receding hairline. The dreded-like fur formed a kind of crown around her head, and instead of having longer top incisors, her bottom incisors were equally long. Alexa made for an impressively intimidating Were-Hound and Faith believed it had something to do with the alien DNA taking up space along with her human, and now Were-Hound.

It made Faith wish she had the resources of the Council to really access Alexa’s abilities. She often wondered how Willow would get along with Alexa. Faith had a sneaking suspicion that Alexa would… test Willow just because. It was clear that Alexa’s new body no longer submitted to anything or anyone not worthy enough.  She contently looked at her lover and Mate, her head lying in the crook of her neck. Once again she noticed the slight scars that looked like markings against her cheek.

Bringing her hand up Faith lightly brushed against them. “How did you get this?”

For a moment there was silence and Faith was about to repeat her question in case Alexa somehow didn’t hear it the first time, but then she suddenly spoke. “It happened on Bouvetøya Island. The Hunter I fought with gave them to me, upon a ‘successful completion’ of the Hunt.”

Alexa shifted, settling herself even tighter against Faith’s body, as if she was seeking comfort. Faith tightened her arms around Alexa. “Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, various cultures worshipped ‘gods from the stars.’”

“These ‘gods’ taught the humans about their constellation and how our earth rotates, various technological advances, and they taught them how to build pyramids. Obviously it wasn’t just one culture and in return these cultures were required to make human sacrifices.”

“These sacrifices  would be inserted deep into a selected and specifically-prepared pyramid, whereupon, the Hunters would implant insect-like, intelligent creatures, which would then burst from the victims chest a couple hours later. And then the Game would begin.” Alexa sighed, remembering when and who told her this story.

“There was only one object of this game: do NOT let these creatures reach the surface. So in the meantime, they’d participate in the Great Hunt, a huge battle between Serpent and Hunter. If the Hunter won, he’d be rewarded. If the Hunter was overrun with these serpents, he always had a back-up plan, and then nothing within a seven-mile radius would survive.”

“We were the cattle to service this battle between the Hunter Alien and the Serpent Alien. I can promise you; you **don’t** want to be the main focus of either of them. It sucks enough being the bait.”

Any response Faith had to that story was suddenly interrupted by a growing pressure in the room, so much so, that it caused her ears to pop. When she saw the orb of green… energy, she didn’t even realize that she’d leapt from the bed into a defensive position because she knew who it was. It was… _home_! 


	26. Chapter 26

She watched as a body began to form: going from nebulous-looking until it became more concrete. The door to Faith’s bedroom was thrown open; Safiya, Isis, Masud, Miko, her Enforcers, and other Pack members crowded into the room, growling at the figure that just appeared. Faith tried to stymie the sharp pang of disappointment when she realized it wasn’t Red. However, Dawn was a pretty decent runner-up. Realizing that both Alexa and she were still nude, Faith swept a blanket from the bed and tossed it over to Alexa, before closing in on the still shuddering-figure, who was clearly feeling the effects of ‘verse-jumping.’

When Dawn lifted her glowing, unnaturally-green eyes to quickly scan the room before landing on Faith, she smiled, and tried to lift a trembling hand. “Hiya, Faith. I thought I’d drop in.” Then she fainted.

***

What followed were lots of research, planning, traditional travel, followed by ceremonies, and more research; Faith, along with an uber-fascinated Dawn, who could barely contain her excitement, traveled to Alexandria, Egypt with Safiya and Miko to use the Great Library. It was while they were there that the Caretakers showed up and what ensued was a weird ceremonial procession out into the **_Great Ocean of Fire_** or more commonly known as the Sahara Desert. Even the natives that happened to be watching nearby seemed to quiet, instinctively knowing this was an important spiritual ceremony. They made Faith drink some mysterious concoction, while ignoring Dawn’s repeated requests for the ingredients, and the next thing Faith knew she was waking up in the middle of a circle of fire, completely Shifted, feeling like she she’d ingested a dozen “magic brownies.”

Dawn commented that it was like a scene from a movie: a combination of Lawrence of Arabia and Half-Baked – “epically high,” was the phrase she used to describe Faith following the ceremony. In the meantime, Dawn went with a an attendant from the Caretakers, a woman named Emina to the local markets and a magic shop to gather the materials for spellcasting, in particular the spell to return home. During her travels with The Council she’d been to some amazing places and when she wasn’t being kidnapped or fighting, or helping to save the world, there were the occasional opportunities to check out the local culture. Curiously enough Dawn had never had a chance to visit Egypt.

Nevertheless she was soaking it up and she couldn’t wait to brag about it to both Giles and Willow. Buffy would just complain about sand getting into unfortunate places. Dawn thought about the close-knit group within Faith's Pack that included Safiya, the 'people' who've helped Faith during this transition. Faith's Pack members were all sorts of delightful characters. Dawn had introduced Miko to the old Summers' custom of shopping. It didn't go over as well as she thought-- she truly took after Faith. Nevertheless, Miko quickly snuggled her way into Dawn's heart and she knew that the rest of the Scoobies would love her as well. Masud and Isis; so beautiful they reminded Dawn of some of models she'd seen in some of the top fashion magazines. Isis was very sweet, the peacekeeper, the one who kept a 'cool head' when needed, while Masud often applied logic and fierce loyalty to the Pack and Faith. Safiya was awesome and they spent many hours going over all things ancient and historical. Safiya believed that Dawn had the blood of a Shamaness in her (she couldn't wait to brag about to Buffy). However Pack dynamics as fascinating as they were didn't hold a candle to the ceremony and resources of the Great Library in Dawn's opinion.

Dawn had wanted to keep detailed notes about the ceremony. But was told that it would have been considered not only rude, but that the actual proceedings were secretive. So it was with some reluctance that Dawn knew she’d have to pay careful attention so she could try to commit it to memory for later review.

Following that was a great celebration, including a Desert Hedgehog and an Addax Antelope that were captured during the Ceremonial Hunt. Afterwards was a big meeting and then Faith was declared their **_Celestial-Shuhan_**. Apparently no matter where she was, she’d remain connected to The Circle. Faith found herself rather exhausted from all the proceedings, Dawn thought that she was rather… majestic, scary, but majestic. It also had Faith desperately wishing Alexa was with her – but as her Guardian-Mate, Alexa was the Alpha-in-Charge, until her return.

Dawn was a bit reserved upon meeting Alexa because she believed that Faith was made for Willow. She’d been mad at Faith too, she felt as if she’d betrayed Willow. It was hard not to revert to her old bratty-bitchiness, testing Alexa, until Faith took her aside.

“Look, I know things are… complicated and I know how this looks. But it ain’t over between me n’ Red. In fact, it’s just beginning. Only it includes Alexa.” She paused at seeing the skeptical, slightly angry look on Dawn’s face.

 “I guess what I’m really sayin’ is that I need you to trust me. This new upgrade means things ain’t so clear cut.” Faith watched Dawn patiently with a solemn look on her face. “Please Lil’ D, I’m askin’ you to trust me.”

As a Scooby, Dawn knew better than most how things mystical and otherwise can throw a wrench into everyday life, add a prophecy, and things become less clear-cut. Perhaps this was one of those cases. Most of all this was about whether or not she trusted Faith, especially considering she was learning so much about the Were-Hound species, lycanthropy, this strange world where Vampires and Weres had rights in many countries. That they had souls and weren‘t mindless creatures who were hellbent on finding their next ‘snack’ or creating chaos, was also new for her.

When she was introduced to the “Master of the City” it was like some bad (yet scary) version of **Interview with a Vampire**. While the men were yummy, with an extra helping of hotness, some of the Vampires could stand to review the dress-code of the 21 st Century. _But whatever; to each their own_ , she’d thought. Dawn was also fascinated with what constituted their “bogeyman” or ‘evil’ and her name was the **Mother of Darkness or Marmee Noir**. _Nothing foreboding about that name_ , she thought with some sarcasm. Apparently she was the Original, the being from which sprang their version of Vampires, and she was all kinds of badass. In addition, there was the Vampire Council. A Werewolf named Sylvie gave her the scoop on them--- it made her wish their version of The Council was here to help.

A Vampire Succubus?! Belle Morte sounded scary and admittedly fascinating too. Secretly Dawn found Belle Morte more interesting than St. Louis’ version of a Succubus: Anita Blake. J-C wasn’t as cool because he kinda… _looked_ Incubus-y.  Dawn decided to quell her interest because knowing her luck it’d only attract The Council’s attention. Apparently Marmee Noir and the Vampire Council have an unwanted fascination with the folks in St. Louis. Dawn could relate. As a survivor of the original Sunnydale crew, being known as the ‘Energy’ that could open portals and sister to the Oldest Chosen Slayer made her a major target. It didn’t stop her from becoming fast friends with that flirt Jason and the very sweet, if poorly dressed, Cherry. It took some getting used to all the touchy-feely stuff… (apparently that's a given with Weres) and the lack of modesty too, but Dawn if nothing else, was adaptable.  In the meantime, she did her best to avoid Anita Blake.

Yikes! Talk about grouchy!  She’d of loved to see Buffy go toe-to-toe with her, not to mention the only thing missing from the tense interactions between Faith and Anita was popcorn with hot sauce and Cream Soda. Anita had already rubbed Dawn wrong when upon their first meeting, she immediately dismissed Dawn because she believed Dawn was yet another person she’d have to "watch over." Anita mistook her for while not completely innocent (after all she was Faith's friend), she believed Dawn to be  ** _weak_** enough that she’d have to worry over her. When Dawn proceeded to verbally eviscerate her, ignoring her clenched fists, or the way Anita fingered one of her guns, as she grew indignant and then furious in return, Dawn simply sneered, knowing she had the blood of The Key running through her veins, years of combat, in the face of sometimes terrible and terrifying odds, simply put Anita didn’t scare her. Plus it helped that Faith and Alexa were nearby, carefully watching the proceedings. However at the moment, she was trying not to inhale more ancient dust and sand than she already had as they continued searching for a spell.  

Finally they came across something useful: dimension-jumping.  Her thoughts were interrupted when Safiya tapped her on her shoulder while Dawn’s head had been bent over some ancient, Giles-salivating tome. Dawn and Faith could barely contain their excitement by the time they got home to the Pack (Dawn was an unofficial member). Now it was just a matter of settling the Pack’s affairs, making sure they were protected, saying goodbyes with extracted promises for return visits – she made an impression, hopefully of the good. But it turns out in true Scooby-fashion, things didn’t go quite as planned.

The first jump was somewhat easy (at least for Dawn), to this alternate ‘verse. This time around Dawn made a cut and jumped first. But then naturally, things became more complicated and messy.


	27. Chapter 27

From the pale green orb, silvery liquid, almost like mercury, grew from a small spot on the floor, growing bigger and bigger, until they could see lumps and impressions of things moving inside it. More lumps appeared, peaks and valleys expanded as the liquid grew. Suddenly the air in the room felt like it was being sucked out, yet they could still breathe, but the overwhelming sensation  of pressure made them want to pop their ears. Willow’s eyes glowed, her hair spilled like liquid from deep-red to gleaming white, and it seemed as if an invisible wind blew through it, as it gently flew around her shoulders. Her elegant hands moved as she casted.

 

Next to her stood a still trembling Dawn, whom was helping to cast the portal, after all she was The Key to all worlds, and for one of the few times, it was being used for something good: bringing Faith home. While Dawn had only been gone a month, Faith had been gone for more than 10 months, but it felt like an eternity. Especially when you consider that in Faith’s Alternate Universe time moved differently, so for her she’d been gone almost **three** years! As Dawn could testify, for a Scooby, a lot can happen and often does, in three years – it certainly did for Faith.

 

Dawn couldn’t wait to see everyone’s reaction to Faith’s new… lifestyle. However none of that mattered for the moment, she just wanted Faith home. Faith had become an integral part of their family; she came when you needed her, even when they didn’t realize they needed her, she always had their back, she was fearless even when she was scared, she was funny and sweet (although she’d deny it), and she’d made amazing strides since her Rogue-Slayer days.

 

Plus, while she wasn’t certain anyone else noticed, there was the surprising connection and subsequent impact of Faith’s disappearance on Willow. One thing the Scoobs noticed was how Willow had become a woman obsessed, researching, trying first prove that Faith was still alive, then finding a spell to bring her home. So when Dawn suddenly made that cut, followed by the incantation, and then disappeared, Dawn had learned that Willow barely slept as she tried to get them both home, worried of how she was going to explain this to Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies. Predictably, Buffy **_had_** been worried and angry – but for all of them; Xander was bewildered and concerned. Giles, knowing how stubborn Dawn can be once she got an idea in head, had the look of weary-resignation. So the Scoobs decided to treat this like Dawn had been kidnapped.

 

 As The Key, Dawn could ‘see’ things that others couldn’t. Not quite an aura, but sometimes other things, other mystical… things, like the almost invisible cord attached to Willow and Faith. The only people she talked about this phenomenon with were Rowena, Head of the Devonshire Coven, and Giles. Dawn was adamant that no one was to know about this occurrence unless it was absolutely necessary. After some reluctance on Giles’ part, they both agreed. However they believed that it had something to do with the Scythe-Sunnydale Spell and Faith being the vessel for which the Slayer line now flowed through.

 

With a smirk, Dawn thought it also probably had something to do with Willow and Faith wanting get ‘horizontal’ with each other, much to Giles’ consternation and the usual lens-wiping ritual. Now Dawn began to wonder if somehow they did something wrong with the spell because the spell was specifically geared towards that nebulous connection between Willow and Faith. It was sort of like a throwing a fishing line, only it’s Dawn and Willow holding the fishing pole. The growing huge blob made it clear that maybe they’d gotten a word wrong or maybe Dawn didn’t account for the ‘New’ Faith.

When Dawn returned, it was more of a glowing-green apparition that then manifested into her physical body.  This appeared as if there was one too many body parts within the growing blob, not to mention was the silvery-substance encompassing the blob. All these thoughts raced through her head as she casted (she was an excellent multi-tasker after all).

 

And yet the metallic-looking blob grew, body parts shifting within it. Willow was so focused on casting that she didn’t hear or see the protective Scoobies, along with Vi, Rona, Andrew, and Rowena, point and urgently whisper that the spell appeared to be working. However, the audience shifted to an uncomfortable, battle-readiness as it started to look as if there more than just their missing Slayer that was brought back. Dawn wondered about that. She hadn’t told anyone about Alexa yet or Faith’s _upgrade_ , only that Faith seemed whole and healthy, plus the general run-down of the society she’d landed in. But she figured she’d at least bring back Miko, who was like a sister to Faith and now Dawn. Dawn immediately became enamored with the growing Well-Hound. The fact that Faith had provided her with a new family, a Pack, made the connection between them strong since Dawn understood what it was like to be have an ‘instant’ family.  

 

Finally, the glowing green light grew so bright everyone except Dawn and Willow had to shield their eyes before the brightness quickly grew dimmer and then blinking out, taking with it that peculiar sensation of pressure. The sound of something being sucked out of the room was the only sound accompanying it. Their voices grown hoarse, wound down as Dawn and Willow finally finished the spell and waited, the rest of the room sat in silent, yet wary expectation.

 

Suddenly a tanned, sleekly muscled arm, decorated with elaborate tribal tattoos, poked out of the blob, jiggling it like a bowl of jello.  Another arm joined it, pulling apart the tear in the blob, making it bigger. Tangled dark, hair, lying lank and flat against the head due to some kind of slickly-wet substance, appeared, followed by a head and shoulders. As the rest of the upper body appeared it was clear it was a woman. Other arms, shoulders, and heads, soon followed, while the woman wiped wet hair and more of the thick clear mucous from her face, to focus amber-reddish eyes within a familiar face: Faith!

 

“Faith!”  Dawn started to run towards the Slayer before being held back by Xander as he pointed.

 

Apparently Faith brought some of her Pack. Faith flowed to her feet, only slipping slightly, looking around the room in confusion, before recognition settled in. She started to smile at Dawn and the rest of the audience; those gorgeous dimples appearing in stark relief. Faith started to say something before pausing to turn around to assist whoever or… whatever, judging by the strong demon-vibe echoing among the Slayers and Willow, that was coming from the blob.

 

They watched as she helped a smaller, gangly, younger woman, skin the color of milk chocolate, with dark, tangled dreds, dripping with mucous. She quickly stood next to Faith, trying to appear brave, but she was frightened of the all the people who didn’t smell like Pack, staring at them. Next was another female whose shaven head gleamed a slick walnut color, soon followed by an ebony-skinned person who was clearly a male, if the size of the member dangling between his legs was any indication. Next up, was another woman, who seemed less confused, her dreds an array of autumn colors: brown, red, amber, and blonde. With help from the male she gracefully settled to her feet, wiped the mucous out of her face, before fastening her gaze first on Dawn and then on Willow.

 

After her, was an arm the color of café ole, strong, smooth shoulders, and a face covered by strands dark, wet waves of hair. The woman reached up for assistance,  that Faith and the younger woman quickly gave. Cursing could be heard, as whoever it was attempted to get out – and quickly, if the rapidly decreasing blob, was any indication. With a strong heave they pulled the last person out and onto her feet, steadying her as she stumbled, accompanied by a **_yelp_** , followed by more cursing. Everyone watched as an amused Faith tenderly helped wiped the mucous from the woman’s face. Willow could only look on, her stomach knotting at the obvious intimacy between Faith and the woman. Faith gently pulled away, finally directing her attention to their audience, who were unaware that they were staring with their mouths hanging open.

 

“Hey guys. Boy, am I glad to be home.”  Faith’s whiskey-soaked tones echoed around the room, she started walking closer, going towards Willow.

 

 Faith lifted her head scenting the air, catching one scent in particular, and felt a surprisingly strong emotional response. Willow’s musky, strawberry- scent filled her nose, making her eyes lidded in pleasure. Nearly three years (alternate dimension time). Three years, with little hope of getting back home, back to… Willow. She stopped only a few inches from the Witch, _her_ Witch, wanting to scoop her up into her arms and hold tight, and if what she was reading in those beautiful, watery, green eyes were any indication, Willow wanted the same thing.

 

Gesturing at her naked, slimey body, Faith didn’t want to get Willow or anyone else dirty. “I’d hug you but I don’t wanna get you dirty.” Shaking her head, she let out slight cough to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. “But damn, am I fuckin’ glad to see you.”

 

  _Fuck it_ , she mentally shrugged. She snatched Willow up into her arms anyways, for an almost bone-crushing hug, eliciting an **_eek_** from the red-head. Feeling another set of arms, sniffing the air through the apple-scented, red hair, she realized it was Dawn that completed their group hug. In the background, Faith heard Giles instructing someone to grab some blankets, towels, and clothes for Faith and her guests. Another hand firmly tugged Faith away from her mini-group-hug to jerk her attention to him.

 

“Good to have you back Faith.” Xander walked closer to pat her on the back and a discomfited half-hug, awkwardly and desperately trying not to oogle Faith’s body, which also meant a ‘no-hug’ policy until Faith got some clothes on.

 

She grinned, before returning her gaze first to Willow, then protectively seeking out her Pack, watching as they were given towels and sweats, Faith made sure Miko was situated for the moment. She then watched as Alexa took charge of handing out the clothes, protectively watching out for her Pack until Faith finished greeting everyone. Almost involuntarily, Faith found her gaze returning to Willow, who was happily watching the proceedings, yet unable to keep her eyes off of Faith.

 

Buffy stood back, running a glance over the muscled, tattooed torso. There was definitely something different about Faith, not even counting the unusual amber-red eyes or the unselfconscious way she (and her Pack) stood around naked. Buffy knew that Dawn had been holding back on the information when she ‘crashed’ Faith’s dimension. She returned with a secretive smirk and a promise that “all will be revealed” that had made Buffy want to shake her in frustration.

 

The Oldest Slayer had always been able to sense Faith differently than anyone else; probably because they were the last Chosen Slayers. But now, it was the weirdest sensation, it was like she could ‘sense’ Faith like she was as Slayer, but she could also sense ‘demon.’ Also, Power thrummed from Faith like a hard throb. She also noticed the heated looks between Willow and Faith, plus the unreadable looks being sent Willow’s way from the woman with wavy hair. Buffy found herself involuntarily running her eyes down the woman’s body, noticing the sleek muscles, full breasts, long, shapely legs, and tattoos to match Faith’s. _Interesting_ , she thought before moving onto… the other “guests,” or Faith’s friends. Then there was the knowing look on Dawn’s face. It confirmed for Buffy that Dawn didn’t tell them everything and in fact, may have left out some very important stuff. Buffy made a mental note to raid Dawn’s favorite shoes as payback for holding out.

 

With a look in Giles’ direction, who was busy trying to analyze Faith’s new markings, she motioned him to join her as Buffy headed over to Faith’s new friends. Holding out her hand, she first directed her attention towards the woman with the multi-colored dreds.

 

“Hello, my name’s Buffy Summers and I’m Faith’--s,” she briefly looked towards Giles  for assistance on how much to disclose (this was an unusual situation), when she was interrupted by the woman.

 

“Buffy Summers, Sister-Slayer to our _Shuhan_ , I am Safiya.” The woman gripped Buffy’s hand with both hands like an old warrior greeting, but she didn’t let go.

 

She continued to stare into Buffy’s eyes, unsettling Buffy, as ageless golden eyes seemed to peer into her soul, and dissecting every decision, action, and belief she’d ever had. When the woman suddenly smiled, nodding as if she’d come to some decision about Buffy, she tugged the Slayer into her arms (that were thankfully clothed by this time) and hugged her.

 

“Greetings, young warrior. It is an honor to meet Faith’s family.”

 

Suddenly Buffy was overcome by the need to cry and spill every secret and disappointment tearing her up inside. When Safiya gently patted her on the back, comforting her, Buffy somehow understood that this woman knew everything about her, and judged her worthy. Furiously blinking watery eyes, swallowing down the hot boil of emotion bubbling up in her throat, Buffy found herself returning the hug. When the woman pulled back, she gently wiped the few tears that escaped Buffy’s eyes, before directing her attention to the older British male standing next to them, who was currently hard at work wiping down the lenses on his glasses. “Is something wrong?”

 

Buffy followed her gaze and chuckled. “Heh, no that’s my Watcher or Head Watcher, Giles. He gets like that sometimes.”

 

“Ah, Mr. Giles. Faith has spoken quite highly of you.” she clasped Giles’ hand in greeting before gesturing towards the other people in her entourage. “Please, come meet the rest of our Pack.”

 

The following few minutes stunned Giles and Buffy further, as they learned that Miko was Faith’s Spiritual Daughter, while the male Masud and the remaining female Isis, were also part of Faith’s Pack. Buffy could feel the energy swirling off of these new people. She watched as Giles finally gave into his curiosity and began asking Watcher-y questions towards Safiya, particularly after learning she was a High Priestess. Buffy glared at a smirking Dawn, mouthing the words: **_we’ll talk later_** , to her.

 

Isis walked closer towards Buffy. “I have heard so many wonderful things about you and the rest of your Clan.” She clasped Buffy’s arm as well, smiling warmly at the Slayer. “I hope that we have not inconvenienced you with our arrival. I imagine we are a surprise.”

 

“Not at all. We have plenty of space, so no inconveniencing us. As for the surprise, well if there’s one thing that we’re used to, it’s surprises. Luckily this surprise is of the good.”

 

 Again, a warm wash of unusual energy swirled from Isis and the others, tickling her demony- but-not-evil-senses. Frowning, Buffy began to ask what or why it was coming from them, but Isis held up a hand to stave off the question. “I know you have questions, but it is not our story to tell. Faith will.”

 

At that moment Giles chimed in. “Ah yes, we were just discussing about the need to remove ourselves from this room. Buffy get Andrew down here; we need to get these people access to bathrooms to wash up, assign them some temporary quarters, food, and then we begin the debriefing on this unusual turn of events.”

 

Noticing Giles’ look of excited-Watcher-mode look, she could only roll her eyes in affectionate exasperation, particularly his growing fascination with Safiya. She looked over towards Willow and saw her in conversation with the other remaining (kinda hot) woman. Masud gestured towards her. “That is Alexa, our _Shuhan’s_ Guardian-Mate.”

 

Buffy’s brow lifted in surprise. “Oh.” She couldn’t wait to get Faith alone. They had A LOT to discuss! And then she remembered Willow. 


	28. Chapter 28

Willow watched the interaction between Faith and the beautiful woman with wavy hair. The longer she watched, the harder it became from wanting to dig her nails into her palms with an unnamed emotion thrumming through her body. Anyone worth their weight in reading body language can tell that there was something… intimate between them. As Faith went around to her… _friends_ , it became clear that there was an almost familial bond between them, but when it came to that woman; there was something more… sensual and open.

 

Willow was starting to feel lucky that she’d expended a lot of magic retrieving Faith, lowering her reserves. Still, she was one of the most powerful Witches in the world, so those reserves weren’t that depleted—not nearly enough to quell the urge to… turn that woman into a frog. She ignored the urge to want to do something even a little less benign than that. She felt someone bumping her shoulder, jerking her attention away from Faith.

 

“You do realize that you’re staring daggers at her?” Dawn amusingly drawled into her ear.

 

“What?! Daggers?! There are no daggers of any kind--,” even though Willow was caught red-handed, she nervously started to babble her denial.

 

Laughing, Dawn shook her head. “It’s all right Will. I won’t tell. Even if Alexa is kinda hot.”

 

Whipping her head around to stare at Dawn with a look of mild betrayal, Willow registered the name of Faith’s… friend. “What?! How do you know her name? And what do you mean she’s hot? Well… yes, she is kind of attractive, but--,”

 

Holding up her hands in a placating gesture, Dawn knew she had to calm Willow down before she really started a major babble-fest. “Whoa, whoa!  You should talk to Faith first before you jump to any conclusions, cause I’m pretty certain that she still has the ‘hots’ for you.”

 

Whipping her head around to stare at Faith, she noticed that even she was talking to… _Alexa_ , she was staring at her. “What… how do you know?”

 

Distracted by a hangnail, inspecting the rest of her nails, and thinking yet again, she’ll have to go to get her nails done; Dawn wondered how such an amazingly brilliant woman could be so dense. “Ummm, Will, she’s looking at you like she’d like spread you out on a buffet table and have her wicked way with you.”

 

Blushing a deep red, Willow could feel a warm glow spilling along her insides at the thought. Especially when she really looked at the way Faith was staring at her; like she was hungry, possessive even. She watched as those unusual eyes became hooded and then slowly moved down Willow’s body, before just as slowly trailing back up to fall into wide, green eyes. Suddenly Faith smiled, her fangs(?) peeking out, her dimples in spectacular display. Willow found herself grinning back, feeling the warmth radiating from Faith, filling her up like warm milk. But then Alexa dipped her head closer to Faith’s, whispering something into her ear, her hand going to the small of Faith’s back, at the same time her eyes locked onto Willow’s with an unreadable expression.

 

It wouldn’t be until Dawn nudged her once again that she realized that her normally green eyes started to darken in awakening anger. A challenge had been made, a gauntlet thrown down; it was time to enter the game. 


	29. Chapter 29

Five days later everyone were beginning to realize just how extraordinary Faith’s metamorphosis was. She was still one of the Chosen Two, but she was also _something_ else. She’d been transformed by a world where Vampires had rights and were Weres of varying types; from prey like Swans to predators like Lions. Faith, apparently with the help of her Slayer, was near the top of this ‘food chain.’ Her unique physiology and spiritual core transformed her Were into something else, something that had the Watchers salivating at the prospect of studying more. Of course, with Dawn leading the charge; she was very protective over Faith, even if everyone felt… slighted that she didn’t give them a ‘heads-up’ about Faith. Her response was to firmly, but amusingly, tell them that a) it wasn’t her story to tell and b) she was more vested in watching how everyone would react. She also had to reassure them that Faith wasn’t _evil_. In fact, she seemed even more… noble.

 

A Slayer-Hound was unheard of in their world and she was quickly developing a reputation among the evil underground and overall supernatural population. When she was fully transformed she ripped through a very difficult Nicdemous Demon; known for their scaly hide, acidic purplish spit (Willow shivered as she recalled their run-in with the demon species), and she tore through Vampires like wet tissue. In a word, she was terrifyingly magnificent and efficient.

 

Faith could also partially transform, apparently only powerful Alphas of Were groups had this ability, and according to Masud and Isis, Faith did it so smoothly. Darkening skin, thick and lustrous hair; almost as if it were a cross between hair and fur, spilled across her skin like water. Her fangs grew long and sharp, bones broke and muscles tore and then re-knitted into a much larger, denser, build with little to no effort. Her nails turned into black talons, guaranteed to tear and rip, a light coating of fur dusted along her broader, more muscular shoulders. But it was Faith’s eyes that were the most unusual; instead of the odd, yet beautiful amber-reddish color they’d become, the irises were replaced by living flames, and if you stared into them too long you became mesmerized, almost paralyzed, and you wouldn’t realize she ‘Rolled’ you until your entrails were slithering around your feet.

 

Along with her obvious physical enhancements, were the psychic ones that made Faith particularly… dangerous. The ability to ‘Roll’ someone was something they’d only encountered from Drusilla or Dracula; one crazy and the other _kind of a douche-bag_ , as Faith and Xander “affectionately” called him. She was also slightly empathic, this ability was dependent on the individual Faith focused on; if it was Buffy, she could ‘feel’ her emotions fairly strongly, the Called Slayers a little less strongly, the Witches within The Council just as strongly but with a different _flavor_. Faith felt her Pack the strongest, even stronger than Buffy. In fact, she didn’t even have to be on the same floor to know what her Pack members were feeling. Alexa’s connection to Faith was even more profound, to Willow’s great dismay.

 

Learning the about what that connection entailed was an illuminating moment for Willow (and probably for everyone else except Dawn).

 

 _Currently the rest of the Scoobies were casually sitting or in Xander and Dawn’s case, eating Oreos, listened to Faith’s fascinating account of her new ‘upgrade.’ Dawn knew most of this, but she was here to provide support to Faith and her Pack. Meanwhile Giles was writing and listening intently to the tale that Faith and Safiya wove._

 _“Now, Safiya you mentioned the Bond or the connection between Faith and her Pack. Is this Bond the same for everyone or is there a particular hierarchy in terms of how strong the empathic connection is to each Pack member?”_

 _Miko who had been busy eating Oreo cookies if the dark crumbs decorating her lips were any indication chimed in. “Oh yeah, Faith’s Guardian Bond-Mate – Alexa’s, Bond is stronger than ours. Well not stronger than mine, just different-stronger.”_

 _The reaction to that announcement was varying. Alexa simply smirked, showing a little fang, while staring at Willow, who desperately tried to quell the rising knot of emotion that wanted to show Alexa that she wasn’t intimidated or scared. In fact, it took everything she had to deny the urge to whisper a spell, pining Alexa to the wall or even more, make her kneel in front of her. Willow also hated the fact that Alexa was gorgeous. Chocolate, fat curls dangling along her neck and strong shoulders, those full, plump lips that even gave Faith’s decadent ones a challenge. The cleft in her chin dared Willow to do ‘something’ about it. She had already reached out with her own impressive empathic powers and knew that Alexa was baiting her, pushing her for some kind of reaction, and weirdly enough it wasn’t done with malicious, catty intent._

 _Even more weird was that Willow didn’t necessarily want to scratch her eyes out in a jealous rage, there were other sensations that Alexa seemed to be tweaking. Willow had never been particularly competitive – she left that up to the Slayers. But she never shirked a challenge and Alexa was clearly challenging her._

 _Faith on the other hand seemed bewildered at the tension steadily rising between Willow and Alexa, in addition to the emotions spilling from her Mate. Not to mention, she was already warned by Safiya that while Alexa was her Alpha and Mated with Faith, Willow was her Queen. However, there were certain… trials Willow must go through to deem her worthiness. Faith had immediately become angry and defensive, certain that Willow was more than worthy. She was more than battle-tested and brave and dozen other awesome qualities, in Faith’s opinion._

 _But Safiya had firmly, yet gently responded. “Faith, there is no doubt that your Queen, your Malika, has the qualities suited for the title. However, she must prove it to the Pack, otherwise they’ll continue to challenge her. It is within our nature.” She then enfolded Faith’s shoulders. “It is also destined, strengthening the Pack, The Circle. Great things are coming, but it is not always a straight path. You, more than anyone, should know this lesson.”_

 _Turning back towards the occupants in the room, Safiya let out a small chuckle. “Besides perhaps it is good to have two beautiful women fighting over you, they will undoubtedly add to your House.”_


	30. Chapter 30

There were merits to good physical exertion. Willow spent so much time around magic that the sheer physicality of punching, kicking, and grappling were gratifying, particularly now.    **Krav Maga** , an Israeli martial arts was perfect for her; since she didn’t have the physical strength of a Slayer and there was often an overreliance on her magic. Plus, her body didn’t engage in physical attacks nearly as much as her Sunnydale days. This particular martial art relies on a close-contact _killing-ground_ and focuses on neutralizing your opponent as quickly as possible – allowing Willow time to think of a spell or to run a to a safe distance. Subsequently, if their enemy had gotten close enough to Willow it was either a result of a surprise attack or all their other defenses were in perilous condition, and Willow always liked to be prepared.

So now she was in their cavernous training facility trading blows with a former Israeli Army-now-Slayer named Amina. Willow’s red locks were swept back by a headband and lying wetly against her scalp, her skin flushed pink with exertion, glistening with sweat, the muscles in her shoulders standing out in relief in her sleeveless t-shirt, as her green eyes waited intently for the next strike, since it was her turn to play defense. She was also trying to ignore the prickle of awareness she’d been feeling ever since Alexa entered the room. Faith was in a meeting with Giles and others, unable to be a buffer from the growing tension between Willow and Alexa.

 

Instead of exercising a distance away in the huge room, Alexa, for some unfathomable reason, decided to do some bag-work only a few feet away from the mat Willow and Amina were on. When Willow receives a punch to her jaw, followed by a gentle yet firm admonishment from Amina for her lack of concentration, it was all Willow could do to not completely lose herself to the building anger towards Alexa.

 

Alexa was mocking her, daring her, prodding some kind of reaction. In the week since their untimely arrival, Alexa has seemingly been everywhere, with a perpetual smirk along her full lips to match her challenging gleam. Willow had to shut down her instinctual empathetic feelers around Alexa because she almost went ‘Dark-Eyed’ when Alexa essentially gave a mental ‘push’ or as Faith would say a “fuck you.”  If Willow saw her nuzzling Faith’s neck one more time, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to quell that anger from turning into full-blown rage. The need to… subdue, the unusual sensation to show dominance had Willow feeling so unsettled that she’d was unable to sleep well, taunted by visions of Faith and Alexa passionately entwined, or Alexa’s mocking onyx-colored eyes and flashing fangs.

 

Even worse, whenever Willow thought she finally had Faith alone, Alexa would somehow find a way to interrupt. She had to believe that Faith was aware of the growing tension between them. At the moment she somewhat purposely had her back to Alexa, as she executed various leg strikes at Amina. Leg strikes that were harder than usual, because she was trying to diminish her growing rage and frustration. Frustration towards someone she was beginning to hate.

 

Yet this hate was competing with the acknowledgement that she admittedly found Alexa, all-kinds of sexy. Then throw in the dreams of naked Alexa, and dreams of naked Alexa and Faith, often had Willow waking with a gasp and her fingers wet with her juices staining her thighs. Add to this was the fact that Alexa was smart. Like really smart and would no doubt be very helpful with research and development. Her intelligence made her that much more attractive. It was driving Willow… mad.

 

Suddenly someone was tapping her shoulder, alerting Willow to the present from her musing. The scent was a clue that it was the object of her irritation and instinctually without even pausing to think, Willow began turning to execute a roundhouse kick at Alexa’s head. Alexa had just enough time duck and roll, and then gracefully jump to her feet behind Willow’s back. The moment Willow kicked through, missing, she realized what she’d done, and immediately stopped to turn towards Alexa. Chest heaving, a growing look of horror on her face, that stopped in confusion when she saw Alexa grinning.

 

“Finally!” then launched a series of punches at Willow.

 

 Amina immediately moved out-of-the-way, but close enough in case Willow got injured. Buffy or Faith will kill her if she allowed the Red-Witch to get hurt on her watch. But from the looks of things, Willow would be no push-over. Naturally Alexa had to pull her punches since she had both a Were-Hound and the Hunter alien species strengthening her. However, the other advantage of Willow learning **Krav Maga** is that it also allows her to interface with her magic while she’s fighting – which is what she’s doing now to her astonishment.

 

When Alexa shifted her nails into claws, it was all Willow could do to not growl in anticipation – she’d been waiting for this. It was time to teach Alexa just how magic works. When Willow’s eyes went black and the tips of her hair matched, muttering a quick spell, giving her matched strength, the fight took on a different level. Unbeknownst to the combatants, the instructors and other Slayers paused in their work-out to watch. In another part of HQ, Safiya had been sharing stories and a wonderful snack of Red Velvet cupcake with Dawn, when she paused in whatever she was saying, jolted by the emotions skittering down her connection to Alexa, via Faith. Focusing on Alexa, she realized that it was finally happening; Faith’s House would soon be complete, closing The Circle.

 

Faith on the other hand, had suddenly stood up from the table, rigid, staring sightlessly ahead, startling Giles, Rowena, and Buffy. Masud who was also sitting in on the meeting watching his _Shuhan_ carefully, knew that the next Mating stage had begun with the Red Witch.  “Ah, Giles I gotta go. Sorry, I’ll catch up with you later.” And with that she quickly left the room, followed by Masud and Safiya.

 

Buffy sat for a few moments as astonished as Giles and Rowena. “Ummm, Giles? What the hell was that about?!”

 

Meanwhile, Rowena was busy psychically reaching out, trying to detect what sent Faith rushing from the room, and the only thing she got were two names: Alexa and Willow. “I think something is happening, involving Willow and Alexa.”

 

Buffy quickly stood. “I’ve seen how they’ve been staring daggers at each other since they’ve met.”

 

She walked over towards the communications board and pressed a button to inquire the whereabouts of Willow and Alexa. When she received the reply, she immediately started for the door. “Rowena you might wanna come with me because if Willow is using magic, and Alexa is involved, it might get nasty.”

 

She turned her attention on Giles who was of course, wiping his glasses. “Giles send down Xander, Vi, and Rhona for me?” 


	31. Chapter 31

When Faith and Masud finally reached the training facility, they could only look on in astonishment. Willow slightly bloodied and sweaty, was pinning Alexa flat on her back, her hand around her throat, a knee wedged into Alexa’s stomach. Alexa was baring her fangs at Willow until the red-head shook her hand around Alexa’s throat, slightly banging the Were-Hound’s head on the floor. Faith quickly walked to the women, intending to break them apart, until she was halted by Masud.

Growling a warning at him, he quickly ducked his head , his eyes lowered, in a submissive gesture. “I meant no disrespect my _Shuhan_. But this is part of the Mating stage; they must finish this so that your Queen can ascend to her rightful place within the Pack.” Everyone within the Pack played a role; Masud was her adviser, a steadying influence, providing strategy, ever logical, among hot-blooded, emotional kin.

While Safiya had warned her about this eventuality, it didn’t stop her from worrying. Hearing a door slam open, she saw Buffy, Vi, Rowena, rushing towards her, while Safiya simply continued to stroll. Sliding to a stop in front of the combatants, next to Faith and Masud, Buffy stood next her Slayer-Sister with a look of stunned disbelief.  Faith marveled over the fact that Willow, who’d gone slightly Dark-Side, had this powerful, wiggling, Alpha Were-Hound pinned on the ground. The audience around them seemed just as frozen in surprise.

“What the hell is going on?! Will--,” Buffy was cut off by Masud.

“Please Buffy, no real harm will come to the Red Witch, but a Queen must be decided.”

“What the hell does that mean?!” with a bewildered look at Faith, whose gaze was locked onto the combatants, a muscle ticking in her cheek, fists clenched, and a growling sound rumbling in her chest, Buffy paused in attempts to break-up Willow and Alexa. “Wait! Mating stage?!”

Dawn, Xander, and Giles, the last breathing heavily finally joined the growing crowd, pushing their way next to Buffy and Faith. “It’s about damn time!” exclaimed Dawn, who proceeded to ignore the stream of questions like: _What?!, You knew?!,_ _What the hell does that mean?!_ or _Did you have something to do with this?!_ and finally, her sister’s _Dawn!,_ that followed, as she watched the scene play-out.

She suddenly wished she had a chair and a bag of popcorn,she thought with some amusement.

Alexa was finding it very hard to not react. Currently, she was pinned by her _Shuhan’s_ Chosen and despite what should have been easy manuvering with her superior strength, she was unable to remove Willow from her body. Aside from being a powerful witch, the red-head was still human… or so she thought.  She’d been told since the beginning of her relationship with Faith; even saw the visions during intensely sexual moments with her, that Slayer-Hound was connected to Willow. It didn’t mean Alexa had to roll over. In fact, her unique… physique and psyche wouldn’t allow her to roll over. It also didn’t help that under other circumstances and maybe at a later time, they could be friends. However Alexa dismissed that last part because through Faith, they were now something… more.  Now, Alexa was finding out whether out that whether that ‘more’ was worth it.

Bringing up her powerful legs, she managed to get it in between their bodies to launch Willow off of her, to land on her bottom a couple feet away. Flipping herself to her feet, she expected Willow to be lying, winded, only to see that she’d already stood, fists clenched, in a fighter’s stance, glaring at Alexa. While Alexa may have gotten a physical upgrade, along with the natural aggression of her Alien, Willow has had years of actual combat experience, throw in being one of the most powerful magical beings in the world, and Alexa might find that she’d bitten off more than she could chew. The combatants began to exchange a series of blows with slightly opened-fists—not really wanting to do too much damage, but definitely wanting to make a point. So kicks were exchanged that mostly smarted on the outside of muscled thighs or to the side of a shin, before landing a particularly punishing one on either a rib cage, or a kidney shot. Their movements were fast, almost too fast, and for every increase in power, agility, and quickness that Alexa let loose, the more Willow tapped into her magical core to compliment her already impressive fighting skills.

Usually, Willow was able to out-think her opponent. But in this battle of wills and physical prowess, the primal need to make her adversary submit was so strong that it subsumed her usual good-natured, objective, and thoughtful approach. The fight went on, the audience grew as the word spread along the hallways, via cell-phones, and through an occasional psychic link about the unusual fight. But this wasn’t a cheering, screaming crowd of spectators. Aside from the signs of exertion or pain from the combatants, the room was utterly silent: except from the occasional gasp, even a growl rumbling from Faith. it was if everyone knew how important this event was, as if they knew that this wasn’t happening for their amusement, that it was something bigger than them. That, and they were wary of Faith’s reaction should anyone take sides. 

Alexa threw a punch meant to land on the front of Willow’s shoulder. But the red-head had been busy casting another quick spell, a small ball of red energy formed between her cupped hands. When it was a little bigger than a softball she dodged another punch, shifted back and propelled her hands forward, releasing the energy ball in Alexa’s direction. The ball hit Alexa dead-on between her breasts, knocking her backwards, her arms flailing, eliciting a ** _yelp_** , until she painfully landed on her back, only roll gracefully, if somewhat painfully, to her feet. Anger began to dance along the edges of her consciousness. Partially-Shifting until her nails turned into claws, her build broke and reformed to a bigger and stronger frame, her t-shirt and sweats bulging and tearing, and her teeth grew long and dangerous. Letting out a deep growl, she launched herself in the air, while Willow settled into a defense position, slightly crouched, with feet apart, and a globe of energy waiting in one hand.

Willow carefully watched as Alexa came gracefully careening towards her, with claws outstretched and teeth bared. By the time Alexa landed, Willow threw the energy ball at her, that she ducked to avoid, but unfortunately she didn’t duck the roundhouse-kick that landed on her jaw, snapping her head to the side. As the stars started to clear, she shoved both hands into Willow’s chest, sending her several feet back, and this time it was the red-head that landed painfully on her back. Still shaking out the wooziness from the kick, Alexa let out a roar, took a starting run, bounded off the side of a nearby wall, leaped into the air again, with a leg outstretched.

But instead of landing with a foot in Willow’s chest, the powerful Witch shifted to the side, whipped her legs around like a dance move and swept Alexa’s legs out from under her. Once again she was placed on her back, and by the time she flipped to her feet, Willow was already moving. She bum-rushed Alexa, tackling her along her shoulder so she could gain purchase on the body-part, to yank and displace, a 'crack' and 'pop' sounding from the region, eliciting a howl from the Were. But then the dark-haired woman gripped Willow with her uninjured arm and flipped her into the wall, making Willow bite through her tongue. A hot, copper taste filled her mouth, her eyes stinging with tears at the sharp pain, as she watched Alexa somehow shift her injured shoulder muscles and oddly rotate her arm to ‘pop’ her arm back into place.

But now Willow was growing angry.

The audience watched with bated breath, as Alexa and Willow slowly danced around each other, the tension steadily climbed in the cavernous room. The crowd startled when  Alexa launched herself forward, clawed hands once again, outstretched. But Willow released a growl of her own, all pretense of humanity falling away, and dropped, slid under the airborne body until she ended up directly behind her.

She landed a punch in Alexa’s side, a direct shot on her kidneys.  Alexa quickly turned around swiping out with her hand, almost gouging her opponent along her torso, but mostly missed, only scratching her, drawing more blood. For a moment she paused, worrying about infecting Willow with lycanthrope, but another snap kick to her head stopped any more thoughts. It hit her cheek, snapping her head to the side, sparking her anger, a loud growl from the audience indicated that Faith would only have so much patience before she intervened. Alexa had been holding back, not wanting to truly hurt the Red Witch, but perhaps it would end things quicker if she let go. So far, the Red Witch had been able to keep up; perhaps it was time to really test her.

And with that she blocked another punched snapped at her head, while returning one of her own, hitting Willow’s stomach, knocking the air thoroughly and painfully out of her, causing her to bend over gasping for breath. Next it was Alexa that swept Willow’s feet from under her and the red-head found herself looking up at the ceiling again. Immediately, Alexa pounced on her, her heavier body pinning Willow to the ground, her lips peeled back into a frightening snarl, a loud growl emanating from her deep in her throat. sensing victory, Alexa lifted the red-head’s upper body from the ground, slid her fingers through Willow’s red hair, preparing to jerk her head back, not noticing that Willow was no longer gasping for breath, but had found the well of rage that she’d kept tethered.

 ** _How dare this woman think she was easy prey?!_** She can practically taste the arrogance, the sense of superiority over her. But Alexa had yet to meet the true Red Witch; an embodiment between darkness and light – luckily more light. However, it was the darkness that was feeding her rage, while her Light was tempering it… somewhat. So when Alexa lightly yanked her head back, she was surprised when she saw Willow’s normally summer-green eyes, had gone completely black. Her hair started floating on the air as if there was an invisible wind dancing through it. A crackling-pop sound, like an electrical current buzzing up through rose up from the earth into the Red Witch’s hands; hands that were clenched around Alexa's wrists. But it was the look on Willow’s face: it was the look of someone dangerous and unafraid, the look of someone who was about to unleash something dangerous and that there was nothing her opponent could do.

Her voice when it came out was deeper, certain of its Power, lifted the hairs on Alexa’s neck. “Bad doggie.”

At that moment, Alexa’s heightened predator-instincts suddenly froze; going from hunter to prey in a matter of moments, as Willow quickly lifted her hands from her wrists, and then pressed them to Alexa’s temples. The pain was excruciating; like spears of white-hot pokers piercing through her brain, completely incapacitating her. Her eyes snapped shut; a howl of pain was released, until she suddenly released Willow like a hot brand. The relief was instantaneous. However before she had a chance to process that, Willow brought her hands up to her chest and was once again Alexa was airborne.

She flew back several feet, landing heavily on her back, banging her already aching head against the ground. She became disoriented for a moment as she struggled to lessen the ringing in her ears, the sparkly lights dancing across her vision, plus the creeping light-headedness. The sound of rushing feet coming closer made her want to get up, but she found that she didn’t have the… motivation to do so. She felt sluggish, definitely sore, slightly nauceous, like she just had her ass handed to her. She closed her eyes at the concerned faces of various people and her Pack members. Faith quickly slid down next to her, gently brushing her hair back from her face.

Alexa tried to focus on what she was saying but it was like she was hearing through molasses. Willow joined them, the crowd of people parting like the Red Sea to let her near. Her now normal summer-green eyes looking worried, watering with tears, were staring down at her. Wringing her hands, chest heaving with exertion, her lip split and bleeding, her gorgeous red hair tousled and lank with sweat—Alexa involuntarily thought she looked fiercely beautiful. Right now she was enjoying the attentions of her Mate.

“I’m so, so, sorry… are you all right?” a sniffle followed that entreaty.

At that Alexa looked into Faith’s eyes, seeing the warring emotions of anger and defensiveness, along with pride. But Alexa didn’t think that pride was just for her. Alexa gave a slight nod that was acknowledged in Faith’s eyes, before turning her attention to Willow. Leaning down to brush her lips against Alexa, Faith then directed her attention to Willow, who suddenly felt like a deer in headlights. Oddly, Faith didn’t look like she wanted to do painful things to her, but whatever unnamed emotion was dancing in those unusual eyes, it made Willow nervous.

“So Red, did you really have kick my Alpha’s ass across the room?!” with an exasperated, but mocking stern glare in the red-head’s direction, Faith carefully settled Alexa before standing up in front of Willow.

Alexa proceeded to painfully get to her feet, helped by Safiya as she stumbled a little. Stepping closer, Faith lifted a hand to stroke Willow’s reddened and rapidly bruising, wet-with-tears cheek, as she waited for Alexa to stand next to her.

“You did good Red. I may not of liked it, but you did good,” she gruffly said to the trembling woman.

Willow’s eyes widened as Alexa painfully shuffled to a stand in front of her, still weeping blood in certain places herself, and her arm wrapped around her ribs. Alexa straightened as much as she could, her eyes locked with Willow.

She slightly nodded her head, before releasing a small grin. “Damn, girl, you sure do pack a punch!” she paused, heaving a deep sigh. “Now that that’s out of the way, as usual my _Shuhan_ is right: you **_are_** more than worthy.”

And with that cryptic statement, her body suddenly grew slack as she lost consciousness. Faith and Willow quickly caught Alexa before she hit the ground, ignoring the shouts of concerns and murmuring. 


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A DO NOT READ AT WORK Scene and general sexy-times, up ahead! You've been warned. lol...

Faith stood under the multi-showerhead, letting the hot water wash over her sore muscles and away her tension. The tension came about from both nervousness and the intense desire to seek Willow out and… kiss her, run her hands over that sleekly-muscled body, the revel in the magic that oozed from her pores, to run her lips all over that porcelain, lightly freckled skin. She wanted to run her hands through that gorgeous red-hair and let the no slightly long hair tickle along her skin. It didn’t help that the fight between Willow and Alexa seemed to of magnified this sexual restlessness.

When she first got her bearings upon returning home, the cord of mystical tension immediately directed her attention to Willow; a connection that seemed much stronger than before she disappeared. Now Faith could find her anywhere; if not through this… _cord_ , then definitely through her scent. When she inhaled that earthy, flowery-vanilla scent, it was all she could do to not drag the red-head against Faith and capture those pink lips. And when those summer-green eyes locked onto hers, her Hound and the Slayer wanted to _Claim_ her.

Faith realized she was lucky. When she considered her relationship/connection to Alexa, Faith could feel the first inklings of what might be love. She definitely cared deeply for her.  Alexa was an amazing lover and friend, and while yes, Faith had _Claimed_ her as **hers** in almost every way, she wasn’t Willow. Alexa understood this, but apparently her lover needed to… ensure that Willow was strong enough, was worthy of Faith’s affections. Nevertheless, when they were showed to their temporary quarters (and Faith to her old rooms), she worried that Alexa might have made things awkward, but she simply kissed Faith on her cheek and said, “She’s beautiful,” followed by a wink, before she continued on to her newly assigned quarters. But as she walked away, Faith instinctually knew things were not going to be that simple. Today’s fight was the obvious result.

Now standing under the shower, she had to physically fight back the ferocious need when her Hound and the Slayer sent an image of both Willow and Alexa fighting like beautiful warriors, or Willow and Alexa naked, curled around each other, golden-brown skin intertwined with creamy freckled skin, rust-colored strands interwoven with lush dark-brown waves. Gasping she quickly dispelled the image, cursing her Hound and the Slayer for stoking the fires. She turned off the shower, drying herself, and began to prepare for another meeting with the Scoobies and the Council. She stepped out into her living room nude while drying her hair with a towel, not looking at where she was going, following scent and memory instead. She immediately stopped as she scented her… and heard as the “trespasser” let out an **_eek_** of surprise.

Willow.

“Ummm, I’m sorry, I knocked and called, but…,” green eyes involuntarily dropped down the length of Faith’s body, “I thought I’d bring it,” she gestured to the food waiting on the table, plus a large manila folder, “food and some Council stuff for you.”

While her stomach began letting her know that it needed to be fed, her mind and other body parts had other ideas, namely Willow. Dropping the towel on the couch, she began slowly walking towards the Witch. She watched as those green eyes imperceptibly widened before darkening to hunter green with the realization that she was alone in a naked-Faith’s room. As the Slayer-Hound walked closer, feeling a tiny bit of self-preservation, Willow backed up until her back hit the wall. But Willow wasn’t scared, she was aroused, terribly so.

All those months of waiting, wondering, craving, the Slayer, and then seeing and smelling her so close for these past few weeks, it was almost too much. Not to mention she was feeling her own version of battle-lust or **_H &Hs_**, with an emphasis on one **H** , as a result of the effects from the fight with Alexa she had earlier. She was being stalked and from the reaction of her body she was responding. Her rapidly hardening nipples, her stomach growing taught with tension and heat, the spreading dampness between her legs, as her sex clenched in want, and knowing Faith could smell it, was intensely arousing.

When Faith stopped inches from her body, Willow watched as her nostrils flared, taking in her scent, her arousal, and then Willow heard a low-level, rumbling, growl, as Faith raised her hands to flatten them on either side of her head, trapping her between her arms. Breathing hard as if she’d just run a sprint, Willow thought her breath sounded as loud as a gunshot in the quiet, tension-filled, room. The red-head stared into eyes once dark-brown, but now an unusual amber-red, that were now faintly glowing with desire and some unnamed emotion. She could only wonder how it was they’d been able to keep their hands off of each other… until now.

However, Willow found herself distracted by those thoughts with Faith’s pouty lips; a provocative indention on the bottom lip that begged to be licked and suckled. Apparently her lips had grown just as dry as Willow’s, when they were slowly wetted by a pink tongue. a tongue that Willow had dreams about, a tongue that immediately sent thoughts of where she wanted that wet muscle to be placed on her body. Realizing that she’d been staring too long at that wickedly sinful mouth, Willow immediately brought her eyes back to Faith’s, only to see that Faith had the same idea as she stared at Willow’s mouth.

“Damn I missed you Red.” The raspy, husky voice sent shivers down Willow’s spine to settle in her groin, making her sex weep and throb even more.

Faith stepped closer, her warm breasts and taut nipples grazing Willow’s slightly smaller, clothed ones, making her nubs ache fiercely, and chafe under her bra. Willow’s skin felt hot, her clothes suddenly felt too tight and constricting, irritating her increasingly sensitive skin. When Faith leaned in to tenderly suck and kiss along her neck, pausing at her pulse point to suckle a little stronger, it made Willow’s knees buckle and her neck arch, causing her to almost slide down the wall. But she was saved when one of those muscular arms trapped her, sliding around her waist to not only prevent her from falling, but to also hold her in place, tighter against Faith’s naked body.

Willow’s hands flew up to clutch Faith’s strong shoulders, her nails digging in a little into the warm naked skin, tangling in that long, silky, wavy, dark hair. “Faith… ple--,” she was cut off by warm lips crashing against hers, immediately seeking entrance.

 Faith’s tongue plunged into Willow’s mouth, making her whimper. Sinuously winding her tongue around Willow’s tongue, and then suckling it, Willow could only slide one hand from her shoulder further into Faith’s hair to anchor herself. The Slayer’s leg slid in between Willow’s, causing the red-head’s hips to involuntarily jerk in response.

Faith could feel how wet Willow was, even through her pants, as she fitted her leg in between her witch’s legs, intensifying the sensations further. The need to _Claim_ Willow was becoming so strong that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop. It was becoming apparent that she’d waited long enough.  And from the responsiveness of the red-head, Faith wasn’t sure they’d make it in time for the all-important meeting waiting for her. The innate powerful magic that constantly thrummed underneath the Witch’s skin called to Faith in a way it never had before, causing the hairs to stand out like she standing in a pool of static electricity. Faith thought it probably had something to do with the Merge; because her Hound and her Slayer liked the Witch.

But all these thoughts were forgotten when she felt Willow suckle on her bottom lip before chasing her own tongue back into her mouth, a game of dominance ensued, that thrilled Faith even more, inciting her lust like a spark to a flame. Wedging her leg even further, her muscular thigh rubbing against the spreading dampness in between Willow’s legs, Faith brought hand down from her waist and the other from beside Willow’s head to slide it along Willow’s lower back, to gently cup and squeeze the wonderfully firm bottom. The action elicited another heartfelt moan from her red-head.

Willow couldn’t help but bring one leg to partially warp around Faith’s thigh while grinding her sex against the Slayer’s thigh, Faith growled and then hefted the Witch in the air causing Willow to tear her mouth away from Faith’s, releasing a gasp of surprise. Willow immediately wrapped both legs around her waist, holding herself tight against the Slayer-Hound’s body, as Faith turned, heading towards her bedroom. She’d waited long enough, it was time to _Claim_ her Queen! 


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Sexy-times ahead. I would NOT recommend reading at work.

Down the hall, Alexa could only clench her thighs together, her arousal humming through her veins like hot oar as she felt her _Shuhan’s_ lust, and the battle-lust from the fight earlier with their Witch. She knew what she signed up for when she decided to allow Faith and by extension, the Pack to _Claim_ her as one of their own, regardless of how it might have impacted the Predator/Alien living inside her. Unconsciously reaching up along her shoulder, feeling the still- tender, scarred _Claiming_ bite mark flare up in a pleasurable-pain sensation, she was reminded of how uncertain they’d all been if she’d survive the Change. She also knew that Faith was deeply connected with Willow, her **_Malika_** or Queen, and that as part of the being Faith’s Alpha, Alexa knew  through her connection with Faith that Willow was much more psychically and perhaps, mythically connected to Faith, than Alexa was. It was part of the reason why she’d been… reluctantly attracted to Willow at first sight. The other reason was simple – the red-head was gorgeous and smart – both consistent pluses no matter what her DNA looked like. Additionally, both her Predator and her Hound (and even her human-side) were immediately attracted to the subtle, yet powerful mystical energy emanating from the woman. Not to mention, Alexa was… emotionally connected; she could feel Faith’s longing, her profound respect for Willow’s power and person, her fierce protectiveness, her unanswered desire for the Witch, her Bond, which now included Alexa, to a lesser degree—but it was there nonetheless.

Sex between her and Faith was feral and beautiful, but it left Alexa feeling like she was missing something. She kept expecting _another ‘something’_... It was a little like eating your favorite Chinese food; it fills you up quickly, only to realize a couple hours later that you’re hungry once again.  Now she realized that that _something_ was Willow. Even her interactions with Faith seemed more brilliant, more… alive since feeling the red-head’s energy.

Safiya had intimated that something like this might happen, but everything surrounding their situation was so unique, even unprecedented, that the Priestess wasn’t sure what would happen. Then her Predator wanted to… test the Witch; after a series of taunts (both conscious and unconscious), the fight was the culmination of Alexa’s assessment of Willow’s worthiness. In essence, it was weirdly like the Alien’s version of… courting. Sighing as she ran her hand along her torso until she slipped it underneath her shirt to slide it up to cup and fondle a breast. Her other hand slid underneath her brand-new sweatpants. She lightly scratched and played with the springy curls grown wet with her increasing arousal, until she finally, with another sigh, slid her fingers into her wet and swollen folds.

Alexa was sitting in a huge, over-stuffed chair, attempting to watch TV, but instead she muted the sound, pushed her sweats down and off, so that she could swing a leg over the arm-rest, spreading herself open, lewdly displaying herself to an empty room, until with a groan she dipped, shallowly thrusting a finger inside her weeping center. Her very sensitive hearing and her mystical connection allowed her to almost ‘hear’ every sound echoing from the room two doors down. So when she heard Willow cry out, Alexa added two fingers, working deep, massaging her walls, while she brought her other hand from tugging on the engorged nipples, to swipe up the glistening pre-cum coating her mound and then began circling her quivering nub. The coating on her fingers making it easier to slide along the flesh. _Damn, how she wished someone was nearby to tug on her nipples_ , she thought.

 Faith always did such an amazing job and her nipples had always been very sensitive, that she’s made Alexa cum just from working over her nipples. As she was circling her clit, Alexa added two more fingers, stuffing her cunt full, providing a slight burn from being stretched. Stretched, she could ‘see’ the same way that Willow was being fucked. Faith was currently plunging three, long fingers inside Willow, while the Slayer-Hound lashed her tongue on her Witch’s pulsating clit. Heat rippled along Alexa’s skin, she wished she’d removed her shirt so she could have unfettered access to her upper-body. For now she allowed the sensations to sweep over her, wondering if Faith could _feel_ her arousal as well.

Suddenly she felt Faith’s Slayer-Hound pause, scenting the air around the physical forms of Faith and Willow, looking around as if looking for something until It stilled and seemed to stare right at Alexa. It was an eerie sensation, but She only smiled at Alexa, recognizing her Alpha. At that moment _something_ entered Alexa’s room, something that felt and smelled very familiar, something like Faith’s Slayer-Hound. Alexa momentarily paused circling her clit, still thrusting her fingers inside her quivering walls, but then She appeared. A nebulous figure, a predator; Faith in her full Slayer-Hound transformation; lush onyx-colored fur that felt marvelous against her human skin, standing well over seven feet, eyes glowing reddish-orange, almost like a living-flame,  gleaming fangs, her fingernails more like claws, were long and sharp, arms and legs heavily muscled—she could practically feel their strength and power.

Her features were wolf-like and yet the face was delicate, the Slayer’s features. Oddly enough, the fur around her face and head was replaced by dreadlocks the colors of Fall: brown, dark-orange, rust, and pale-blonde. Altogether, the image should have looked odd, scary, but oddly, but it worked, and it was impressive. Her stare was possessive and hot as she looked over Alexa’s lewd yet sexy display; fingers wet from the juices pouring out of her, her nub quivering and red, and her weeping cunt being probed by her own fingers. Alexa supposed she should feel embarrassed, but Faith and her Slayer-Hound were her Mistress, her _Shuhan_ , she belonged to her and Alexa suspected (or hoped) that she would soon belong to Willow. Although if she were honest she was worried that Willow wouldn’t… accept this unusual relationship, particularly after their fight.

However, at this moment she wanted to cum, with her body and her soul bare to her Mistress. With rumble from deep in Her chest she fluidly squatted in front of Alexa, perched right in front of Alexa’s soaked mound and busy fingers. Alexa could almost swear that she could feel puffs of warm breaths tinkling along her swollen, wet, flesh. So Alexa went back to making herself cum, only this time she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out long well mostly because she’d always had a penchant for being an exhibitionist. But it was as her fingers went back to circling and gently pinching her purpulish-red clit, the fingers from her other hand went back to plunging themselves into her pulsating hole, that she suddenly felt a ‘warmth’ sliding against her metaphysical shields, demanding entrance. Her Predator-Hound alert, wondering, warning the interloper, until She scented her, Faith, her Mistress, her Leader, and her lover’s Slayer-Hound.  Like a heat-blanket wrapping around her Beast, Alexa could only purr, at both at the feel of Faith’s Beast rubbing, dominating, surrounding hers, as she rubbed and thrusted her way to an orgasm.

It was a singular experience. It was when the walls of her cunt started to pulsate and flutter as she started to peak, was when another presence entered her room, making Alexa’s eyes widen in surprised pleasure.  Glowing green eyes stared down at the sensual tableau of Alexa masturbating; muscles standing out in stark relief, silky brown skin gleaming with sweat, thick, dark-brown curls laid in disarray around her shoulders, while Alexa and Faith’s Beasts rubbed up against each other. Equally hot Predator-Hound eyes stared back at flowing red-hair lay tousled along her shoulders, her milky skin flushed and glistening with sweat, her neck still wept from the _Claiming_ bite made by Faith. In ever-increasing arousal, Alexa she pinched her clit harder, above her thrusting fingers, the cum pouring out, as another orgasm thrashed its way through her body. She realized it excited her even more to know that both her Mistress and her **_Queen_** were watching her, and judging by the angry-lust rising in the Witch’s eyes, **both** wanted her, sending Alexa completely over the edge.

  
“Willow!” 


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sexy-times ahead. I would NOT recommend reading at work.

On the huge bed, blankets tossed everywhere but on the occupants of the bed, Faith was breathing a deep moan into her Witch’s mouth as she watched Willow watching Alexa’s body arch high peaking. Both of them naked, unusually Faith was on the bottom with Willow lying, pressed to her front, along Faith’s body, legs entwined, their thighs smearing girlcum that was steadily weeping from their centers. Faith’s hands were tangled into Willow’s silky, red-locks, pressing her Mate’s mouth to hers, their tongues delving deep into each other’s mouths, as their hips grinded against each other, their nipples, hard and aching pressed hard into the other’s breasts.

They couldn’t get close enough. The scents sinking deep into each other’s psyche, tantalizing their other senses, like the desire to taste, pool of want spreading all over their thighs. Wanting, no needing, to taste what she’d waited so long to sample, what was teasing, creeping through her senses, Faith wanted to completely and unmistakably mix their scents together, leaving no doubt of Willow belonging to her and Faith belonging to the Witch. That need was growing more powerful, that throb echoing inside her, similar to the throbbing in her teeth before the Claiming.

But before she made a move, willow broke off the kiss to nibble and suckle along her jaw, drawing a moan from Faith, before moving down Faith’s neck. Here Willow’s suckling became firmer with a tiny bite, causing Faith’s hips to jerk in response. When Willow came to the spot connecting shoulder and neck, she spent a few moments, laving it with her tongue, suckling hard and long, creating an intense sensation within Faith. The intense throb grew to almost overwhelming proportions, crawling underneath her skin, settling deep in her chest, ballooning towards an explosion.

Willow sweptt her hands up Faith’s firm abdomen until she was cupping those gorgeous breasts, her thumbs stroking the almost inch-long erect nipples; whining-like, cries leaking from Faith’s kiss-swollen mouth.

When Willow started to bite down on Faith’s pulse-point, not quite breaking skin, the pleasure-pain sensation was creating all sorts of wonderful reactions in Faith. And her Slayer-Hound was loving it; so much so, that Faith’s hold on her more human-side was being submitted into the background, as her more feral, primal instincts came to the forefront. Higher-thinking and processing lessened in the wake of wanting to complete their Bond; both physically and mystically. Similar to the Bonding process with Alexa, but much sharper and deeper, seeping into her skin, settling deep inside until it became a part of Faith.

Lifting her body slightly to turn her over, she was halted when Willow suddenly became heavier. Breaking the kiss, she looked up into slitted-eyes, grown heavy with arousal; eyes that had were becoming an interesting mix of her natural green and now bronze, dancing around the edges of her irises. Willow slid her hands up Faith’s arms until she interlaced her fingers with the Slayer, and then pressed their hands against the bed on either side of Faith’s head. Chests heaving, Faith had to consciously stifle her need for dominance, but Willow was more than worthy, so she submitted.

Turning on her Resolve-Face, Willow leaned down to briefly kiss her Mate, her eyes glowing, before voicing a pressing question. “Now, I think it’s time you told me why I feel a secondary bond to Alexa and who she is.”


	35. Chapter 35

Miko sat munching appreciatively on a Twinkie, thinking she wished she knew about these things sooner. She was in the kitchen with the One-Eyed-Man-Xander, who was charged with finding her something to eat. The others of her Pack; Masud, Isis, and Safiya were with her _Shuhan’s_ people. Aside from Xander,  Dawn was one of her new favorite people. She was funny, pretty, and didn’t talk to Miko like a child. Not to mention she tells funny stories about Faith.

Then her thoughts turned to the woman named Willow. Miko loved her fiery-red hair and she was beautiful and powerful. Plus, she smelled like strawberries and summer. Miko knew she was connected to Faith the moment she saw them in a room together.  At first Miko thought that Alexa would be their Queen, but they realized that the Bond they shared with her was that of a **_Regent_** , Faith’s Second, following Willow, their new **_Malika_** or Queen ** _._** However, Miko allowed her lips to curl in a small grin; from the way Alexa was watching Willow, plus the wicked-cool fight from earlier that everyone was still talking about, she suspected that Willow will have to… show proper dominance of another sort to Alexa – and that meant for more interesting times in the near future.

Of course, thoughts of the Wise Man-Giles punctured her musings of fun because he, along with the others of Miko’s Pack, insisted that she attend schooling with some of the younger members of their organization. That was definitely gonna cut into the fun-ness factor. 

****

Safiya was discovering that even though this wise man appears weary and sleep-deprived, that didn’t diminish his obvious sharpness of mind. The One-Eyed Man, Xander had left earlier, charged with looking after Miko, while Isis and Masud had retired to their assigned room, pleading exhaustion. The other young woman, Dawn was currently eating at the small table nearby, a very interesting combination of pizza with anchovies and chocolate milk. Safiya could only delicately shudder as she considered that flavor combination. After her visit with them in the other dimension, Safiya thought she’d become used to Dawn’s odd flavor pallet, but apparently she still had some ways to go. Safiya saw many great things in that woman’s future; in spite of her youth, Dawn was almost as sharp as Mr. Giles.

However, not nearly as attractive; even if he had a penchant for constantly removing his glasses and wiping them down. Currently the topic of conversation was about Safiya’s **_Shuhan_** , Faith, the physical battle for dominance that had occurred earlier between Willow and Alexa, Mating, and other Were-Hound details.  Safiya was regretting not being able to bring some of the ancient scrolls about their Clan, she suspected Mr. Giles would have been delighted to have an opportunity to extend his scholarly knowledge on the Were-Hound species. But it was looking like they may not exist, at least their particularly species, in this world.

Presently that wasn’t Safiya’s biggest concern. Through her link with Faith and Alexa, she could feel that the Bond was mutating. The young and powerful Red-Witch, Faith’s Witch; Faith was attempting to complete the Mating Ritual. Alexa had been making things… difficult for Willow, as evidenced by the earlier physical battle. However, Willow’s resounding dominance over Alexa should begin to settle things. The biggest challenge will be the merging of all three. Three Alphas, only one pre-determined as the leader, their Dominant – Faith.

 


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major sex scene ahead: I WOULD NOT recommend reading AT WORK!

Faith struggled to speak as Willow languorously lapped up the juices along her labial lips, her clit stood tall and swollen twitching every time Willow’s tongue made contact, waiting for Faith’s reply. Hissing, Faith responded. “Yo—you’re my Queen, my First Mate…Alexa is Ou-ours too.”

A deep groan followed when Willow rewarded Faith by sliding her tongue deep inside the Slayer-Hound’s channel. Curling deep, drinking down the fluids that seemed to be running faster into her mouth, the red-head tried not to miss one drop. It was then when she felt another tug on her metaphysical walls, a ‘presence.’ She knew without ‘seeing’ that it was Alexa. Her unique scent, the _**feel**_ of her was becoming as familiar to Willow as Faith’s.

Willow knew that there should be more of a discussion about what it meant for Faith to Claim her. Would she too become a Were-Hound, if so, what were the dangers of the transformation, how would this affect her magical core? And many others. Usually, Willow was all research-girl, but at the moment, the urge to immerse herself in Faith, to taste her, to touch her, to cum with her, were instincts much stronger than reason. Added to this was Alexa, and Willow’s tantalizing, surprisingly intense attraction to her. 

Pulling her tongue from inside Faith’s weeping center, she gave another long lick until she dabbled at her very swollen, throbbing, red clit. Growling-cries and gasps interspersed with curses, continued to spill from the Slayer-Hound’s lips, especially when Willow surrounded her lips around the clitoris to begin a hard suction, while swirling her tongue around the exposed, excruciatingly sensitive glands. At that moment, she felt a warmth rub against her naked skin, causing goosebumps to explode in its wake along her back and thighs, making her skin to tingle. She shivered and moaned into Faith’s heated flesh. She felt the ends of her hair, slightly dampened with sweat, lift like a leaf on the wind or as if someone was gently blowing on the back of her neck.

Willow knew that if she turned she’d see _nothing_ , but if she used her _magical eye_ to ‘see’ she knew she’d see Alexa. For some reason she was comforted by that. Ever since their _battle-royale_ , she been attuned to Alexa in a way that let Willow know that somehow they’d become profoundly connected. This connection was magnified by Willow’s metaphysical ‘visit’ with Alexa; watching as the beautiful woman pleasure herself, calling out Willow’s name as she climaxed. It seemed to shatter a final wall between them, allowing some of their essences to slightly mix.

Willow figured that was why she was currently returning the gesture by joining them now. Later, when the time was right, Willow will close the Triumvirate, their Joining. Because she realized now, that the intense connection between the three of them was exactly that. _For now she wanted to make Faith cum, she’d been such a good girl for waiting_ , Willow thought slyly.

Sucking even harder around the bulging clit, while whipping her tongue back and forth over the sensitive peak, she brought her hand around from fondling Faith’s delectably, muscular bottom, to plunge three fingers inside the brunette’s cunt. Raising her hooded, dark, hunter-green eyes, she watched as Faith’s head whipped back and forth on the pillow, the cords stood out on her neck, as she rode the harsh yet pleasurable waves of delight. The sweat somehow made the muscles stand out even more in relief. She was stunning and she was _Hers_ … They belonged to Faith. Willow found growing contentment in that realization.

When the involuntary fluttering began along the shaft of Faith’s clit, along with the contractions around her fingers that grew in strength, Willow began swirling her tongue faster, as her fingers milked the pulsating hole. She used her thigh and other hand to hold on as Faith’s body arched high, before shuddering hard, the cum shooting out, spilling over her mouth and chin. The tingly-sharp pain clued Willow into Faith’s partially Shifted claws digging into her shoulder, making her bleed, as the Slayer-Hound howled her way through her orgasm.

However, Willow realized that the pain was diminished by the fluttering of her own sex as the orgasm tearing through Faith’s body slammed into her own. She could only close her eyes, whimpering, undulating, riding Faith’s thigh.  An icy-hot sensation encased her breasts, centered around her nipples, warm breath seemed to release puffs of air along the back of her neck, and across the sensitive Mating Bite along her shoulder.

 ** _Willow_** , was breathed into her ear.

And for the first time, everyone felt truly home. 


	37. Chapter 37

Buffy wrung her hands, as she stood outside of Faith’s room. She could smell them, even hear the howl from Faith, the sexual energy was enough to make her skin prickle. Honestly, she was envious. First when Dawn arrived divulging little, but looking like she’d just had warm dark chocolate and caramel poured in her mouth, Buffy was sure she could browbeat her enough to give up the pertinent details. Dawn also spoke about a dimension where Vamps had souls, or at least most of them did. Apparently there were still a few Big Baddies. Both Vampires and Weres were in every major city and the public knew about them; which made Buffy wonder how this impacted Faith.

Then _Faith with her Gang of Five_ landed, looking like this powerful, sexy, primal creature. It was disconcerting to say the least. Next, Buffy saw her fight and it was scarily impressive. In fact, it gave Buffy pause that barring throwing silver jewelry at her, she could ever defeat her Sister Slayer… or is it Sister-Slayer-Hound? She sighed before turning around, but not before cringing when she heard another cry of pleasure. She trudged back to her office, where most of the Scoobies and Faith’s people (minus Faith and Willow, and Alexa,  of course) were waiting. 

Safiya looked knowing and pleased, while Masud and Isis were snuggled into each other in contentment. Miko was busy chatting with Dawn while eating a Twinkie (again). They appeared to be unconcerned about Faith and Alexa’s presence. Meanwhile the Scoobies aside from Giles were looking either bored or waiting expectantly.

“Well where are they?” asked Xander.

“Ahhh… I don’t think they’ll be joining us. Perhaps later?”  Buffy was SOOO hoping she wouldn’t have to provide details.

“Buffy I simply cannot comprehend why either you or Faith are unable to keep--,”

“Wise-Man, they are not joining us because they are Mating.” Naturally Isis’ comment stopped Giles in her tracks, causing him to whip his glasses of his face, furiously wiping them.

“It has been destined. Faith as the _Celestial-Shuhan_ , Willow her _Malika_ or Queen, and Alexa their Guardian Bond-Mate. A powerful Triumvirate will form.” Silence met this statement.

Giles cleared his throat, replacing his glasses on his face. “Why were we not informed of these events? More importantly, what will this mean to Willow’s magical core?”

Masud’s deep, accented voice chimed in. “The Joining was not written in stone. It cannot be forced, they must accept.”

A **_wack!,_** followed by **Xander!,** had them watching the amusing interaction between Xander and Dawn. “Sorry, he realized that three possible women might be naked and together, made him have 'Xander-moment.'” 

Buffy could only feel relief that she didn't have to do any explaining.


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Sexy-times ahead! Do NOT read at work!

When Willow sluggishly started to wake, she noticed several things at once. First, that she was completely naked and she wasn’t alone. Hot skin pressed against hers from both sides, clueing her in that there was more than one person in bed with her. For some reason she wasn’t alarmed by this. She was warm; no, she was hot, almost fever-hot.  In fact, it was all she could do to not begin shuddering, but the hot skin on either side of her felt weirdly soothing. For a few moments she struggled to remember last night, before scenes came roaring back through her consciousness.

It began with a visit to Faith’s room to bring her food and remind of the impending meeting. What followed was creamy naked skin twined around gleaming burnished, tanned skin. She shuddered again as she remembered Faith grinding her clit into bottom, leaning over, nuzzling, scenting, an area along her neck. Full lips suckling, preparing the area, hands slightly larger than usual with long dangerous claws sliding through her red locks. Those same hands had spent long moments, hours it seemed mapping out the skin on her body, lightly scratching certain, newly-awakened erogenous zones.

She remembered the scents; Faith’s own unique blend of musky cinnamon and vanilla, the spicy tanginess of liquid-heat springing up from between Faith’s legs. She remembered sensations, the sting of claw, the sand-papery feel of Faith’s long tongue, the velvety skin overlaying steely muscles that Willow wasn’t certain most humans had use of, the weapon-roughened calluses skimming, fondling, kneading, fucking Willow into an undulating  mess. Mostly she remembered the most intense orgasm that seemed to last even longer, accompanied by a bite along her shoulder that should have had her screaming in agony, but only seemed to prolong the intensity of the orgasm. And she remembered tendrils of magic; the colors of green, red, gold, and black, weaving around them like gentle vines.

Then she remembered her Other Mate. The one whose skin reminded her of favorite milk chocolate; at first all she remembered was her was something non-physical, more metaphysical. She remembered swirling colors and heat caressing her skin, making the hairs stand up along her neck and arms. She had a scent too, that Willow knew she’d be able to identify blind-folded in a large room: nutmeg and jasmine and something… earthy. Willow also remembered how incredibly delicious she looked as she masturbated for her, as she came all over her fingers. That was a different scent too; whatever that earthy scent was became deeper and muskier.  She remembered how her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth because she wanted to shove her face into that juicy pink ‘flower’ that was on display for her. She wanted to devour her, drink her juices, smear her scent to mingling with Faith’s.  But the bigger urge had been to see her kneeling in front of her, open and needy, her throat long and exposed, dark, fat curls dangling along her back, looking like some kind of neophyte. She was not in love with her, not yet. But she was beginning to need her. Needing Willow, needing Faith; all of them connected, their primal-ness to her magic.

But not yet.

It was when she’d been knuckle-deep inside, cum spilling out around her fingers, making hot trails down her wrist to her elbow.  She remembered lapping up her juices, swirling her tongue around her fate, her _Femme Sang_ , her Blood Mate, Alpha to her Omega, the moment she tasted her blood she **_knew._** Tara was only the Beginning. She and the Guardian were her End. And when her magic, now grown wild because of the Mating Bite, pulled the Other into their bed, Willow knew that the Circle must now be complete; once started, it must end or her magic will grow too wild, eliciting an icy stab of fear because it reminded her of her untamed Sunnydale days, the dark days. Soothing kisses from both Were-Women, tendrils of strength and comfort sent along their connection:  a thick, taffy-like, mystical cord from the Slayer-Hound and weaker, gauzey-like, mystical cord because of Open Mark, waiting for her, for their Guardian to complete the Triumvirate.

She then remembered sliding her arm up behind her, her fingers diving into those dark curls, bringing that tantalizing, unfamiliar mouth to hers. She remembered humming and then moaning as their tongues dueled a dance of dominance, and Willow finding herself gripping her Other’s hair a little firmer, nails digging in slightly until the she gave in. She remembered tickling her tongue in the sexy cleft on her chin.

She remembered marveling at the contrasts in their skin as she sat perched on her Guardian’s stomach, facing away from her, circling her hips, smearing her juices along the muscular abdomen. She could ‘feel’ the heat of her Femme Sang’s stare, watching them, her fingers already circling, thrusting, and tugging between her legs. Occasionally she’d feed her juices to either Willow or the Other. it was when Willow scooted back, the Other’s fingers reaching up to once again tug on her deliciously-sore, oh-so-red, engorged nipples that she gave the order. When she finally perched delicately above her new lover’s mouth, watching the beautiful, bronze skin undulate and heave, saw the glistening wetness along her thighs, even saw a fat vein standing out in stark relief along her groin, she locked eyes with her Femme Sang and leaned down for a feast of her own.

Moaning, whimpering, even a few silent screams later and Willow was rewarded for her own efforts, as the cum came pouring out onto her tongue, and into her mouth. She didn’t realize that she’d dug furrows into her lover’s skin, blood leaking along her hips. The metallic scent mixed in with the potently delicious smell of fluids interrupted Willow’s almost zen-like concentration on the pulsating flesh in front of her. It was also her Femme Sang who began lapping the trails, until she joined Willow in cleaning up the sensitive folds, and then sharing a kiss of blood and cum. She remembered her saying that it was time and Willow bravely, but with some trepidation, yet with a certainty deep in her bones, in the magic that this was meant to happen.

So Willow remembers finding herself sweetly trapped between both of her lovers, her Mates, Faith lapping gently at her Claiming Bite, while the Alexa suckled along the curve of her breast, preparing her, loving her. She remembers Faith pausing, asking again if she was sure, followed by Willow nodding her head, all the while staring into Alexa’s eyes. Finally she remembers the sliver of heat, like sliding very sharp and smooth glass into her skin, bringing tears to her eyes. Fingers from both women sliding into her heated flesh, completely stuffing her full, the sensations being so intense that she almost couldn’t breathe.  She watched as her streams of wild magic suddenly zipped fast, without any rhythm until they slowed, the colors twining around one another.

After that she remembered nothing at all. 


	39. Chapter 39

Buffy, Giles, Safiya, and Dawn sat in painful awkwardness in front of the barely clothed, except for a silk robe for Faith and an over-sized t-shirt for Alexa, snuggled against each other. Buffy never took Faith for a snuggler, but then she was wondering if she ever knew Faith at all or if this was just an extension of **Faith 2.0** , as Andrew liked to call her.

Giles predictably removed his glasses to begin furiously wiping them. “Now, I believe that we are here, perhaps you’d like to provide a little more detail than Willow not being available for a week because of her… transformation, you indicated?”

A book flew across the room the hit the wall behind Buffy, startling everyone except Faith and Alexa. “Ahhh, yeah about that… you see, Willow is mine and Alexa’s. But we’re also hers. Oh, yeah, and she’s like my Blood Mate, and to the Pack, she’ll be their Queen. Until things settle her magic is kinda wonky.”

Stunned silence met that announcement. “Boy, Faith you still haven’t curbed your tendency to understate things have you?” Dawn asked with some amusement. “is she… ?” she didn’t have to finish because everyone knew what she was asking.

“No, nothing like that. I’d tell you if it was, I promise. It’s just things flying through the air on occasion, other times it’s a flower suddenly growing in the middle of the bed. my favorite was the super-duper large pancakes.”

Before Faith could provide a rejoinder, Safiya joined in on the conversation. “I assume she is going through the Transformation? She will need the Pack soon.”

Again, Faith was prevented from responding when Buffy jumped to her feet, hands fisted at her sides. “What the—I mean, is **anyone** not concerned?! What did you do to her?!” she started towards the bedroom before she was suddenly blocked by Alexa.

Like most Weres Alexa had become accustomed to nudity, and the oversize t-shirt only covered so much. With an eek, Buffy turned beet-red and turned around. “For gawd’s sake put some clothes on!”

“I’m sorry B, the only people we’re lettin’ in there are Pack members or her Coven.”  Faith joined Alexa, placing her hands on Alexa’s shoulders as she stood behind her.

“Fascinating! I’m assuming that Willow gave her consent in all this?” when Giles first spoke he started out with his Watcher-y tone, but the question was a hint of the Ripper. After all, Willow, like the rest of the Sunnydale Scoobies, **_were_** family.

Before Faith could reassure him an orchid suddenly appeared near his feet. “I guess that’s Will saying ‘hi.’”  Dawn chimed in.

“I’m sure you’ll understand when I say that I need assurances that every measure is being taken to ensure that she is not harmed during this process. I would also like one of her more experienced Coven members to assist since it has become apparent that her magic might be… evolving, for lack of a better word.”  Giles was once again furiously wiping his glasses before replacing on his face.

“I believe I can help where her Coven cannot. The Red Witch is a powerful force and her Bond with our _Shuhan_ was destined, as was her Bond with our Guardian. She will need those familiar with magic around her; those whose essence is grounded in both Light and Dark to help her through this Transformation.”

 It was all Safiya could do to not shift as very powerful wild magic sporadically zipped about the room, occasionally rippling across her skin. She knew both the Wise-One and Little Sun (as the Pack called Dawn) could feel it to some degree since they both had a magical core as well.

Buffy could feel a headache coming on. _She wanted **her** Willow back!_ she petulantly thought. But she knew that more change was coming, whether she liked it or not. Why do all of her changes have to do with either Apocalypses,  her dying, again, or yet another failed relationship? Sighing, she planned to go directly to her room and have a gi-normous pity-party, complete with all her favorite snacks and her favorite movies, and then tomorrow she’s dragging her sister shoe-shopping.  Also, she was gonna be needing a visit with her almost worn vibrator, (obviously before the shopping with her sister…eww!).  Hopefully these personal mini-goals to maintain her sanity would sufficiently quell her impatience and concern regarding Willow, until she finished processing things. Since Faith’s return and now this, the intense sexual energy was making her inner-Slayer pace a ditch in the rug.

But first, “Wait, so what you’re telling us is that Will is essentially… married to two people?! To Faith?! Does she know this???”

Giles meanwhile was busy doing the lens-wiping thing. “Yes, Buffy I believe that is a fair assessment of the situation.”

Buffy knew her mouth hanging open probably resembled an unattractive animal, like a fish, but… Wiilow, married, with TWO women! Albeit, hot-Xander-drooling women, but still! Buffy couldn’t even manage one, much less two... persons! 


	40. Chapter 40

Willow was currently feeling the luscious effects of sitting propped and undulating against her Bond-Mate Alexa, with her darkened now greenish-gold eyes closed, her head laid back against Alexa’s strong shoulder. The Guardian-Mate’s fingers were busy tugging, twisting, and pinching her already reddened and deliciously-achy nipples. Desperate whimpers and pleas spilled from her lips on compliments of her other Bond-Mate, Faith, as she slowly, too slowly, shoved the dildo into her pink and grasping hole. Her thighs laid over Faith’s strong, smooth thighs, giving the Slayer-Hound the access she needed. Occasionally, Faith would pause, slowly sliding the faux-cock out, the ridges providing extra stimulus to Willow's swollen walls, as she hooked strong arms underneath the red-head’s knees while using her own knees to provide leverage, tilt and spread her thighs wider, so that she could bend down in way unnatural to humans to swipe her long tongue through the oozing wetness.

Added to this was the fact that Alexa currently was holding  her arms restrained and pinned to her sides, leaving her completely vulnerable to her two Mates.  “Goddess!” plus a dozen other wordless pleas or swears. For the most part, while Willow was still… Willow, her Transformation seemed to of toned down her usual general perkiness, and whatever latent aggression or instincts towards dominance became heightened.

Her infamous “Resolve-face” could turn into something much more… intimidating and feral. Except for those who were considered Family: the Scoobies, the people who made up the New Council, and now her Pack, had never really felt that hair-raising sensation. Unless she needed to assert her Dominance within the Pack– which she found herself doing against Masud, even Alexa occasionally. But by now everyone knew that when that happened, clothes or at least most of them were gone in a matter of moments, following such an incident.  For all others, if they weren’t polite, Willow could get twitchy. In fact, Buffy swore she heard Willow growl at some military hack who was trying to pretend the Council didn’t have diplomatic immunity over a group of evil Warlocks they'd been hunting in that country.

However, the most unsettling thing, at least for the Scoobies (minus Dawn who found the whole process fascinating) was her inner-seductress seemed to have been unleashed. It wasn’t quite the skanky Vamp-Willow, but one got the sense that there was a level of comfortableness or rightness with her body that they’d never seen.  There was also the touchy-stuff; the Red-Head could often be found snuggled into Faith, Alexa, or even Miko. It didn’t help that Xander was still doing that drooling-thing ever since he caught her not once, but twice, in compromising situations with Faith that one time, and both Faith and Alexa the next. Needless to say, he avoided her for a few days.

In fact, he was probably the only person (other than Kennedy), who was still rather uncomfortable with the New Willow. Resentment seemed to cloud his interactions with Faith and her Pack, minus Miko – they bonded over Halo 3. Until one day Alexa, caught him sneering and being outright disrespectful towards the more reticent Isis. It took Faith, coming to his rescue, to peel Alexa off of him. The painful fingerprints around his throat made swallowing difficult for a few days. Willow could have healed it, but she refused and then forbid any of the other staff healers from doing so. _Sometimes a lesson needed to be felt days afterward in order for someone to get it_ , was her new worldview. Even Giles had to take a step back when Willow stared him down, growling that it was either this or Alexa and Xander fight until someone became unconscious.

In the meantime, Giles immediately began testing both her physical abilities, and along with their next most powerful Witch, Rowena, her magical abilities. That led to some explosions, veritable lush, wild gardens… oh, and her ability to go on visions quests to have “chats” with a Goddess. _Who does that?!_   But apparently these ‘chats’ were helping Willow to control the new flavor and upgrade in power. Nevertheless, things were very interesting at Council HQ for the next few months, but even worse for the Demon community. They were already wary about the Red Witch, the fact that she’d apparently had gotten an ‘upgrade’ didn’t escape them.

However, Willow wasn’t as interested in this world. She wanted to visit Faith's and the Pack’s _other_ world. After some discussion, some of it heated because Buffy wanted to go. After all, lots of hot men, who liked leather, limited clothing, and were all muscularly, was a prime attraction. Not to mention, she absolutely had to see this world for herself: Vampires were legal?! Insane!  The problem was not having one of the Chosen Slayers in their world could present security problems and unforeseen problems – which was a Scooby ‘special.’ However, Kennedy was called back to HQ, to discuss her possible installation as the Interim Head Slayer until they returned. Naturally, this included some haggling, and a confrontation between Kennedy and Faith, that had Kennedy being sent to Willow’s magic healers and other medical personnel, while Alexa made polite excuses and dragged her Mates to their rooms.

When either Faith or Alexa, even Willow's battle-lust were activated, in combination with heightened emotions, what followed required some of the hottest sex Willow had ever experienced. Especially as that one time following the Kennedy-Faith incident, when Willow seductively licked the blood found along Faith’s knuckles, incited the Slayer-Hound’s lust even more. Meanwhile Alexa had dimmed the lights, lit some candles, and pulled out some of their favorite toys—with the way Faith was panting, _they’d be lucky if Willow and she didn’t walk out of here bow-legged_ , she thought with some amusement.

On the other hand, Dawn was once again finding herself trying to calm Giles from rubbing his glasses into oblivion, as Buffy ranted about the Pack, violence, Willow going all dominant-y, and wondering if she was now going to have to enact some discipline on almost everyone. Mostly, Dawn was trying not to laugh. Things had been way past interesting and fascination lately, since Faith and the Pack arrived. Throw in the official Mating between Faith, Willow, and Alexa, and it was practically Wild Kingdom around here, except replaced with hot chicks. Dawn quietly left Buffy to argue with Giles about going to Faith’s world, ignoring Xander’s broodiness, while smiling at a serene Safiya. She started down towards the Medi-Lab to check on Kennedy; something tells Dawn that when the Slayer wakes up she’d like to see a friend.

After some debate, careful planning (or as careful as you could be being a Scooby, constantly under the threat of an emerging Apocalypse, evil demons, or humans in cahoots with evil demons), they finally got the approval for the mission. That was another thing they’ve learned; humans if found to be enabling or assisting evil-demons in any way, were dealt with by deadly violence if it warranted it. An attack and subsequent torture of Dawn by humans, as part of a larger evil-demon-apocalypse-plan, had Buffy quickly changing her belief-system regarding her “no hurting humans.”

It was the reason why she gave Dawn a great deal more leeway than she used to. It was also why she’d been so frightened when Dawn disappeared to find Faith. In the end, it was decided that they’d only go for a two week stay, with the understanding that time moved faster there. In addition they had a fail-safe mechanism that allowed them to ‘jump back’ if they got into trouble there or if they was an apocalypse-like emergency here. So Rowena was left in charge of the Witches—besides they’d begun to realize that they’d been entirely too reliant on Willow and her brilliance. It was time to cultivate new leadership in the event Willow stepped down, took some time off, or worse. Kennedy, along with Vi, Rona, and Satsu were the temporary managing body for the Slayers, with Kennedy as the Interim Head. Since Dawn was a Watcher, it allowed Giles to stay (however reluctantly), and assist Kennedy and Rowena in the coming weeks.

In the end it took a leap of ‘faith,’ empty stomachs, and the some green “fairy” energy in the form of Dawn. Besides, they were prepared, powerful, and ready to face any challenges. Or at least they thought they were. And so back in the room of the Return-Home Spell: Buffy, Faith, Willow, Alexa, Miko, Safiya, Isis, Masud, and Dawn, were there one moment and gone the next.

Buffy panted, trying to swallow down the nausea. Dimension-jumping? Not of the fun. She felt the others before she straightened to her full height, as her racing heart began to slow, her senses taking immediate stock of her surroundings.

“Well everyone, welcome to St. Louis, Beta Universe.” Buffy turned towards Faith, noticing her grin, her dimples standing in stark relief. “I came up with the Beta part last night.” Amused, Buffy rolled her eyes before noticing some people headed their way and from the scent of them, they weren’t totally human.

But before she could say something, Faith started towards them, followed by a grinning Miko, Alexa, and a slower Willow, and Isis, Masud, and finally Safiya. Buffy took a moment to appreciate the changes to her friend, hanging back, before registering the tingly feelings that were now increasing. But before she could call out to someone she felt that popping sensation and then she vanished. It would take everyone a few moments to realize that she disappeared.

Dawn watched as the Pack greeted the rest of their Pack, knowing that Willow was about to be tested. She mused that since Willow became a… Queen, the Red-Head was more… just _more._ She was calmer, more self-assured, except when she’s not like if she felt anyone of _hers_ (either from her Pack or her friends and family) was threatened. She went from sweet, calm, if slightly… different to wanna-do-pain-and-destruction Willow like nothing they’d had ever seen from the red-head. Like that one time when a Master Vamp, had Miko cornered when they were Rome. Faith was elsewhere with Alexa, leaving Miko with Willow. They’d all been trying to hunt this Master Vamp who was trying to raise an army to take on the Watcher’s  & Slayers’ Council. 


	41. Chapter 41

Buffy panted, trying to swallow down the nausea. Dimension-jumping? Not of the fun. She felt the others as she turned on her back, trying to calm her racing heart, as her senses taking immediate stock of her surroundings.

“Well everyone, welcome to St. Louis, Beta Universe.” Buffy turned her head towards Faith, noticing her grin, her dimples standing in stark relief. “I came up with the Beta part last night.” Amused, Buffy rolled her eyes before noticing some people headed their way and from the scent of them, they weren’t totally human.

But before she could say something, Faith started towards them, followed by a grinning Miko, Alexa, and a slower Willow, then Isis, Masud, and finally Safiya. Buffy took a moment to appreciate the changes to her friend, hanging back, before registering the tingly feelings that were now increasing along her skin, even 'buzzing' underneath her skin, making her feel light-headed. But before she could call out to someone, she felt a popping sensation, and then she vanished. It would take everyone a few moments to realize that she had disappeared.

Dawn watched as the Pack greeted the rest of their Pack, knowing that Willow was about to be tested. She mused that since Willow became a… Queen, the Red-Head was more… just more. She was calmer, more self-assured, except when she’s not, like if she felt anyone of hers (either from her Pack or her friends and family) were threatened. She went from sweet, calm, if slightly… different, to wanna-do-pain-and-destruction Willow like nothing they’d had ever seen from the red-head. Like that one time when a Master Vamp had Miko cornered when they were in Rome. Faith was elsewhere with Alexa, leaving Miko with Willow. They’d all been trying to hunt this Master Vamp who was trying to raise an army to wipe out the the Slayers’ Council.

**

 _Both Willow, Dawn, and Miko heard the noise first. As Willow quickly stood up, standing protectively in front of Dawn and Miko, sending her Power to help her Cub Shift faster. “Dawn, behind me! Miko, Shift. Now!” Right at that moment the door burst open, a huge Vampire and his minions spilled into the room._

 _“Well, well, well. Look what we have here? A red-headed Witch. You’ll make a tasty snack – later. Right after we take care of your cub and then have a little fun with The Key. The kid has a bit too much fur, but once we 'encourage' her to Shift back, she’ll be a lot of fun. Especially as were 'enjoying' the other one.”_

 _Suddenly Willow felt a white-hot rage fill her veins; how dare these Vamps threaten what was Hers! Especially since Miko and Dawn were her blood-sisters, they were definitely Family. Green fire began to dance in her eyes, the same fire lit up along her hands as she squared her shoulders, unknowingly baring her teeth. Teeth, that had sharpened and grew as dangerous as the fiends that had stepped into the room. Of course what those Vamps didn’t have was some of the most powerful, feral, magic, combined with physical strength and abilities guaranteed to make to make them realize they’d underestimated the situation. But Willow was at a point that even if the Vamps wanted to suddenly leave them unharmed, the red-head couldn’t let them. They had woken the Beast AND the Predator inside her and They wanted blood. Theirs, more to the point._

 _What alerted at least one of smarter minions that something was off, was that the ‘human’ had suddenly grown taller, broader, more muscular, her nails turned dark and grew in length. And the fire. Vampires had a severe allergic reaction to fire, the fact that this was green fire, made things feel considerably more dangerous. They didn’t know what that meant, but what little instincts they had knew enough that if that fire touched them, meant all kinds of badness for them._

 _One of them finally recognized the red-headed woman. “Wait, shouldn't we wait for back-up? I mean, isn't this the Red Witch?!”_

 _Since minions were never selected for their intelligence, the leader of their little group simply growled his annoyance in being interrupted in his attempts to frighten his quarry. This couldn’t be the Red Witch since their recon indicated that she never leaves the Slayer’s side. They were really here to capture (torture and later eat) one of the new Shifters that had been reported, decimating the Vampire and demon ranks within the Underworld. It didn’t really register that the object of their speculation, wasn’t scared. In fact, she seemed to be growing calmly-enraged._

 _He stepped forward, his face shifting in his Vampire visage. “Now, why don’t you make this all nice and easy and hand over the Shifter?” he paused to gesture towards the number of minions behind him. “As you can see you’re greatly outnumbered.”_

 _The mocking laugh threw him. “Apparently minions don’t like to do their homework. Otherwise you’d know it’s not the Slayer you have to worry about. It’s me.” And with that, she was an object of motion and magic._

 _Tearing through the room like a tornado filled with green fire. Staying between the Vampires and her charges, she threw an orb of green fire at one, while slashing with her sharp claws, another. The puff of ashes didn’t slow her down, as one Vampire came running at her she punched a hole in its chest, could actually feel its heart before he too went up in a cloud of ashes. However, she was saving her best for last; right before she threw another orb of green fire at a now screaming minion, and then continued to slash and magic-fire-bomb all of them, except the now cowering leader._

 _Seeing her blood-stained, quivering muscles bunching, her fangs long and dangerous, along with that unusual, yet deadly green fire dancing eerily in her eyes and along her hands, it was all he could do to not wet himself – if he could. So instead, deciding that self-preservation was the better part of valor, he quickly turned around, intending to run out of the busted in door, only to run hard into it. He didn’t realize that Willow used magic to replace it when she saw he was about to make a run for it. Now she was trying to decide if she should either kill him – which is what both her Beast and her Predator were clamoring for, or if she should keep him alive in order to send him (with a few missing parts of course) to his Master with a message._

 _With a wave of her hand, the terrified Vampire found himself pinned to the wall by some unseen force. But first she needed to calm her Beast and Predator. “Come here Miko.” she held out her hand for the brave yet scared Were-Hound, who actually managed to kill one Vamp. She placed her hand into her Queen’s palm. ”It appears I have a decision to make. But I decided that as part of your education, you’ll need to learn how to make crappy, yet slightly fun, decisions in the future.” She explained her dilemma to Miko and then waited for her input. Willow had every confidence in her Cub. Miko was very intelligent and would one day, make a wonderful leader herself._

**

The Old Willow would have never considered this as part of mentoring, but the New Willow, was a bit more… feral and pragmatic. It took her a few days or a couple weeks really, to accept this part of herself (and her Bond-Mates), but now that she had, she felt a cord of contentment together with a sense of strong self-possession, that was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. After living through the Transformation; her body accepting both her Guardian-Mate, Alexa and her Blood Bond-Mate, Faith, Willow was still trying to figure out just how different she’d become. Luckily she loved learning new things, even if those things challenged her natural (yet quickly diminishing) inhibitions.

The hardest part of the Transformation was getting used to the… metaphysical bodies that had taken up residence inside her. Willow had to take some time adjusting, as she tried to manage intense emotions that seemed to erupt with a hair-trigger release-system; causing them to spring up during stressful or even sexy-times. Sometimes she swore she could feel the brush of fur inside her skin or brushing up against muscles and sinews. Other times, she found herself accessing… strangers as either predator or prey. It was disconcerting. Then there was learning how to move with her 'new' body; both in combat and in the more relaxing moments. Her senses and physical abilities were heightened, and instead of the gait she’d been walking with ever since she learned to walk, she now had rolling, fluid gait that seemed almost predatory, definitely animalistic.

Shifting was also new and entirely unique. She hasn’t fully Shifted… yet. At least not in the traditional sense. But she seemed to take on certain physical characteristics needed for Partial-Shifts. Willow’s version of Shifting was to grow taller, her build would become bulkier, and her skin darkened as if her creamy, fair skin always had the ability to naturally darken to an almost nut-brown color. Hair would become thicker and more lustrous, a gorgeous blood-red color down to her ends, which then became lighter, a mixture of yellow and copper. Her canines grew long and sharp, while her nails turned dark and equally long and sharp. The first time she Shifted, they’d been taking on a horde of _Phylanx Demons_ , and somehow Alexa had gotten hurt. Suddenly, with a roar of rage, Willow Shifted into this Were-Willow, and began taking apart the demons. And when it was over, demon bits laid all over the ground. In the middle of this destruction stood Willow, looking like some kind of purple blood and gore covered, avenging Valkyrie.

Then there was her magic. She’s had to re-learn control all over again because her magic was much stronger, more… feral; instead of a bouquet of flowers, she could instantly grow an entire garden. Weirdly enough, it seemed more… focused during intense emotional moments – like during a fight, but the _flavor_ of it would be… different. A bit like music notes, instead of simple chord, an extra note or two would be added until it produced a different sound; like funk instead of rock. Some in the coven said she was more in-tune with balancing the Dark and White magic, allowing it to merge, until it formed a magic completely unique, completely **Hers**.

Willow was still trying to wrap her mind around the changes, not to mention more sex with a side of kinkiness, than she’d ever had in her life. If making love with Tara was like brisk walk on a calm Sunday afternoon, then making love with Faith and Alexa was a bit like driving in the Indy 500. Oftentimes, she didn’t know where she got the imagination or even the stamina to do some of the… _things_ they’ve done in bed, or the bathroom, there was also that one time in the kitchens. Actually they’ve tried a variety of places, because when the Heat overcame one of them, it spilled down through their Bond, and it was either deal with it then, or be prepared to deal with it when it was even worse. And it was always worse the longer they put it off.

Once they were caught Willow with her legs propped on Alexa’s shoulders as she feasted on her tender, wet, folds, as Faith sat perched over the red-head’s hungry mouth, by none other than Buffy. For days Buffy stammered and blushed whenever she was in Willow’s presence, _probably because she was too busy fantacizing_ , as Dawn teasingly claimed. Xander hadn’t been able to walk straight around them for weeks, especially when he heard about what Buffy walked in on. Giles, when he wasn’t trying to pump them for more details about Willow’s Transformation, the Bond, and other relevant Were-Hound information, was busy testing Willow’s other new abilities. At the moment, as she watched the larger Pack approach, Willow began to fully appreciate her Transformation, as she took in what would be Her Pack.

They were immediately surrounded by growling, Shifted and a few Partially-Shifted Were-Hounds. Upon, scenting their Shuhan, they started to press in, needing to touch, scenting their own and others with her. Others that were not official Pack, even if they had the scent of Pack on them. Dawn tried to use her hands to cover as much of her naked body as possible. Figures her new and expensive clothes would disappear during the jump, she pouted. Faith shakily stood, before firming up, and then let loose her Power, accessing her connection to her Were-Hound's Elder host, _Andraste;_ one of the **_Old Ones_** or **_Original Pack_**. Faith wanted her to see that the Hounds were re-building and that the process had begun. Immediately the Pack members fell to their knees in their show of submission. She held out both her hands to her Mates.

“It’s good to be home. Looks like we’ve grown a little.” She smelled the sawdust in the air, indicating the obvious construction taking place on the house, plus the obvious growth of her Pack - lots of new faces. Faith brought her Mates closer, waiting, all of them completely unconcerned with their nudity. It didn’t take long. It was one of the Triplets of course.

“Who is she?” was asked with all-attitude and attempts at intimidation.

But before Faith could answer, Willow laid a palm on both Faith and Alexa’s shoulders, halting them as she walked a little closer to the larger Pack. “My name is Willow and as of this moment, I am your Queen.” she paused, allowing that statement to sink in. Reverting her voice to her 'Nice-Willow' voice she added, "Now I know this is all kinds of weirdness." For a moment the Weres, particularly some of the Alpha females who had their sights on Faith, lifted their heads, thinking to challenge Willow due to her seemingly flighty personality, thinking she wasn't Dominant enough. "But you would mistake my nice-ness for weakness, something I assure you would be a mistake."

And with that she opened up her Power, its intensity causing all except Dawn, Alexa, and Faith, to shudder and bow their heads in submission. But Willow had another urgent issue to address. “Now, can someone point me to the bathroom?”

No one noticed Buffy missing until Faith turned to look for her Sister-Slayer, to begin introductions. Faith hadn't noticed immediately simply because their Slayer-Bond became slightly muted because she was accessing her Bond with both Andraste and her Pack. “Where the fuck is B?!” It wouldn’t be until a week later they received on a heavy, expensive, perfumed vellum envelope and letter. The more they read the flowing, beautiful script, the more concerned they became. _Who the hell was Belle Morte?!_


	42. Conclusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I'd like to thank all the wonderful people who took the time to leave a comment and stick with me throughout this story. And to my favorite fellow writers: gypsydruid, bearblue, and melanacious, who were always there to occasionally do beta-duties, or be a sounding-board, and were just generally pretty awesome, all around -- thank you!

Buffy didn’t know how she always ended up in these situations. For a Slayer, she seemed to end up in Vampire’s bed. Honestly, what was it about her?!  She was an impressive Slayer, she’d stopped more apocalypses than you could shake a stick at, Vampires, as a general rule hated and feared her. But it was always the “unique” ones, the most dangerous ones, who seemed to end up in her bed. She wondered if it was some kind of maddening cosmic ‘fuck-you’ to yours truly. Granted, this was the first time she’d found herself in the clutches of a female Master Vampire and the plus side was that she seemed to want to fuck Buffy to death rather than taking a chunk out of her neck. The most interesting part of this… crazy development was that this Vampire seemed absolutely bewildered as to why she couldn’t roll Buffy and Buffy was trying to figure out how she got into her bed. 

And what kind of name is Belle Morte anyways?! Well for the moment, she was wondering if the lethargy that had settled into her bones had more to do with having the most intensely profound, marathon sex-fest of her life, coupled with missing a pint of blood, that had even her inner-Slayer purring with contentment. Even as her senses were still wiggin’ out from all the Vamps and Weres sitting outside the room. And that creepy-evil Vampire-life-sized-living-doll,  Musette, her supposed Enforcer, who made Drusilla seem perfectly sane. The moment they had been introduced made Buffy’s fingers twitchy for Mr. Pointy.

A sharp fingernail lightly dragged across her muscled abdomen reminding Buffy of her immediate situation. “I can ‘ere you z’inking, ma chere.”

Buffy sighed, stretching sleek, yet powerful shoulder muscles before answering. “I’m just trying to figure out how the hell I got here.”

A light tinkling laugh that carried with it a inkling of the power of Belle’s _Ardeur_ tickling near her ear. “’Ou are ‘ere because I brought ‘ou.”

At that Buffy turned her naked body to the equally naked female Master Vampire, propping her head up on her hand, taking in her thick dark curls and honey-gold eyes, and full, swollen, lips. “I was supposed to land in St. Louis with my people, yet I land in your room --that looks like by the way,” she paused to motion around the huge room, “like it could stand for some modernizing.”

Ignoring the mild insult of her sleeping chambers, Belle gave a gallic shrug at Buffy’s complaint. “Who can zay? Perhaps, ‘ou ‘ere meant to be mon Pet?”

Buffy cocked a brow and dryly added, “It looks like you have more than enough Pets and besides, I’m really not pet-material. Ask anyone?”

Belle continued to look amused. “Many ‘ave tried to resist, but all ‘ave failed.” she gave another one of those casual-french shrugs, “’Ou will be no different.”

Buffy grinned, showing a hint of small fang herself – oh yeah, since landing in Dimension X (as she liked to call it), Buffy’s merge with the more Primal Slayer was accelerated, becoming more obvious. Inexplicably, as soon as her Slayer saw the Vampire She wanted her, even as Buffy found herself unable to resist in a horrified-lust-filled-fascination. It’s only now, completely spent, aching in all the right places (and  in some unique ones too), that the Slayer allowed Buffy to come to the forefront again. The curious thing was she didn’t know why she wasn’t… scared, pissed, or even completely embarrassed. In fact, the need to curl herself around this woman, even with her lukewarm skin was… strong.

“Ahhh, but then you haven’t met the Slayer.”

 

 

Until the Next Story… Buffy’s Journey 


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